Look Toward the Sky
by Arklune
Summary: Jess and Leslie's lives are changed when a new kid moves to Lark Creek. This is an alteration/expansion of the movie. **Discontinued**
1. Ketchup

_Thanks for checking out my story. This is something that I've been wanting to work on since I saw the movie, and I'm just now finding some time to sit down and work some ideas out. I'm making it all up as I along, so any constructive criticism or corrections to mistakes I will likely make are always much appreciated._

_As you will see, this chapter highly parallels the movie at some points. This won't happen as much as the story progresses and moves away from the storyline of the movie, but hopefully it doesn't get too monotonous in the meantime._

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 1 – Ketchup**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

Jesse Aarons grumbled and kicked another small rock out of his path as he walked down the side of the long road.

It wasn't extraordinarily hot outside, being November, but the humidity of the Summer hadn't dissipated just yet. Not to mention he was carrying a rather heavy backpack full of his various schoolbooks and homework assignments he would no doubt put off until the last minute. To top it all off, he was in a very bad mood. He had actually been having a relatively good day until he had gotten on the bus to head home. He had sat down next to his new friend, Leslie Burke, and he couldn't help but smiling at how happy he felt whenever he saw her. He was glad it was already Friday and was looking forward to spending the weekend in the woods with Leslie, but before he could even say hello to his friend, Janice Avery, the menacing 8th grade bully who loved to torment Jesse, walked by him and dramatically pretended to trip. The bus driver turned around in his seat and asked what the problem was, and Janice suddenly cried out that Jesse had tripped her. Despite his and Leslie's proclamations of his innocence, he was forced to exit the bus.

Jesse kicked another rock off of the road as he got closer to the mailboxes outside of his and Leslie's respective driveways. He had been mostly staring at his feet as he walked, lost in thoughts of anger, and had failed to notice that Leslie was sitting on some rocks next to the mailboxes waiting for him. He could feel his unhappiness evaporate as soon as he saw her, he was surprised at how easily he had perked up just at the sight of her. Upon closer examination, he saw that Leslie had also been a target of Janice on the bus that day; she was covered with what looked like ketchup.

As Jesse approached her, Leslie heard his footsteps and looked up at him smiling as he sat down next to her. "What happened to you?" asked Jesse, somewhat rhetorically as he had a pretty good idea already. "Janice Avery is a _very_ talented person! She can shoot ketchup packets over four rows of seats!" Leslie said in a mock-envious tone. Jesse couldn't help but laugh a little, but he felt bad afterwards as she had not laughed at his predicament of having to walk home. "Jeez.." he said a bit absentmindedly. "Can I wash up at your place?" asked Leslie, "If my mom sees this, she'll be all over the principal and everybody, and my life will be over." Jesse nodded and they stood up to begin the walk up the driveway when suddenly Leslie stopped them.

"Hey look over there," she said, pointing down the road a bit to a big U-Haul truck parked outside of one of the smaller houses about a quarter-mile down the road, "It looks like we're getting some new neighbors." Jesse looked down the road and had to squint a bit, but he could definitely see that some people were carrying in some boxes of stuff into the house. He saw a few adults, all women, and one boy who Jesse guessed was around his and Leslie's age, but it was hard to tell from that distance. The boy had bright blond hair that contrasted greatly with his red shirt and Jesse was almost positive that their new neighbor was looking back at them for a few seconds before grabbing another box and taking it inside.

"Should we go welcome them?" Leslie asked Jesse, turning to face him. She had a hopeful smile and Jesse could tell that she really wanted to meet their new neighbor, but Jesse was a little more hesitant. "Uhm.. don't you want to wash out the ketchup from your hair and stuff?" he asked, to which Leslie responded by gasping. "Oh my gosh! I forgot I'm a complete mess! Right, well, let's go." she said and they started off towards Jesse's house, but not without looking back at the U-Haul truck a few more times.

The kids never made it to the new neighbors' house that day. Jesse told Leslie he wanted to go to the woods instead, and Leslie began to protest, but soon decided that the woods would be fun and that they could meet their new neighbor later. Jesse was silently glad that she hadn't made him go meet the new neighbor. Jesse couldn't put his finger on it, but something about the prospect of meeting someone else really bothered him. Sometimes his conscious would kick in and try to give the new boy the benefit of the doubt.

_He could be really nice. Why are you afraid to meet someone new? What if he becomes your friend? Don't you like having friends?_

Jesse almost felt like slapping himself across the face to try and silence the nagging voice (which strangely sounded a lot like Leslie.)

* * *

Sunday arrived quietly and with no real fanfare, at least as far as Jesse was concerned. He woke up rather early and decided to lay in bed and work on some sketches he had been making of the "Squogres" in Terabithia. Jesse's previous conception of the day being uneventful was quickly shattered when his entire family surprised him with a birthday cake and a present. He had completely forgotten it was his Twelfth birthday that day, and he couldn't help but grin at the sight of his entire family (except for Joyce Ann, of course) singing Happy Birthday to him. May Belle held the cake up and sang at the top of her lungs, and Brenda and Ellie looked rather inconvenienced by having to be in his room.

On Monday morning Jesse was a little late getting on the bus for school. Luckily for him the bus driver was willing to wait as Jesse sprinted down his driveway and practically dove onto the bus. As he walked down the aisle he noticed that a blond boy was sitting alone in the 2nd row, staring out the window at Jesse's house. The boy glanced up at Jesse as he walked by and they made eye contact, though only for a second. Jesse knew it was his new neighbor, but made way for the middle of the bus where he took a seat in front of Leslie.

The bus started moving again with a slight jerk that made all the kids rock forward a bit, before settling back in their seats. The bus was rather quiet, and Jesse was about to bring out his sketchbook when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Leslie wanted to tell him something, so he leaned back a bit to listen better. "His name is Lucas." she said simply. Jesse was a little confused, "What? Who?" he asked, but soon realized that she must have been talking about the new boy. "Our new neighbor up there. He was waiting outside our driveway when I got there this morning. Apparently my mom told his mom that he should wait with us." she explained, but didn't sound nearly as bothered as Jesse felt.

"Oh.. So, you uh, you talked to him?" Jesse said after a few moments of silence. Leslie simply nodded and kept chewing on the stick of Juicy Fruit that she had covertly popped into her mouth at some point in the last 30 seconds. "Yeah. He seems really nice, but he's very shy. Reminds me of someone else I know." she said. Jesse was looking forward again but could tell that she was grinning. He chuckled a bit at her joke, but otherwise didn't respond again.

A few minutes later, Leslie tapped Jesse on the shoulder again, this time to give him her birthday present.

* * *

_Revised 06/17/08_


	2. Locker Number

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 2 – Locker Number**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

Lucas Morton felt unbearably nervous as he sat on the bus on the way to his first day at Lark Creek Elementary. He was not happy at all about having to start at a new school a few months into a school year. He had hoped that his mom would have decided where to move last summer so he wouldn't have to join his class so late, but his mom wanted to secure a job before moving somewhere, and it took her a while to find a good one close enough to where they would be living.

Lucas sighed to himself and readjusted his position in the 2nd row of the bus. He again wished that his mom would have been more helpful; she promised to drive him to school on his first day and help him find his class, but her boss had called her in to start early on that Monday, so he was going to have to take the bus. He felt a mixture of relief and anxiety when his mom told him that he would be waiting with his neighbors down the road a bit, to save the bus driver the extra stop. Lucas thought he had seen the new neighbors last Friday when he was bringing boxes in, but he didn't want to keep staring down the road. It wasn't until Monday morning when he met with one of the other kids, Leslie Burke, that he was sure he had seen them that day.

Leslie seemed very nice, she was about 7 months older then Lucas, who was always one of the youngest in his class, having a summer birthday. She was very outgoing and tried to get Lucas to talk to her, but his severe shyness and introversion always had him pegged as one of the quietest kids at his old school. Leslie spoke very highly of her best friend, Jesse Aarons, but he was nowhere to be found as Leslie and Lucas waited for their bus. Leslie seemed a little concerned about his absence, but Lucas offered that he was probably just running late, which seemed to calm her down a bit.

Lucas could tell that Jesse meant a lot to Leslie from the way she spoke so reverently about him, and he had wanted to get a chance to meet him before school. Lucas had read in some magazine that school is a lot easier if you have two good friends with you, and although he thought little of the suggestion at the time, he found himself wishing he did have two good friends in Lark Creek.

Eventually Jesse's little sister, May Belle, ran up to Lucas and Leslie and waited for the bus with them. Before May Belle could ask who the new kid was, Leslie asked her where Jesse was. "He's coming, he slept late and has to fix the sprinklers in the greenhouse again." May Belle answered, while glancing at Lucas strangely. She immediately turned to him and asked, "Who are you?" Lucas thought she sounded a little hostile, and started to clear his throat to answer, but Leslie spoke up for him. "This is Lucas, he's our new neighbor." she said to May Belle.

The little girl's eyes instantly lit up and any possible hostility Lucas thought he had sensed was instantly gone. "Cool! Do you have any little sisters?" she asked excitedly. Her question was so sudden and loud that Lucas couldn't help but arch his eyebrows a bit before answering that he was an only child. "Oh, darn." May Belle said and lightly kicked the ground. Leslie smirked a bit, "She asked me that as soon as I met her too. There aren't really any kids her age around here." she explained. Lucas nodded a bit, but didn't say anything back. May Belle began talking about her Barbie dolls with Leslie, but Lucas found himself glancing up the driveway every few seconds to see if Jesse would ever show up. 5 minutes later, he had still not come out and the bus was pulling up, and the 3 kids prepared to climb on.

Despite Leslie and May Belle's persistence, Lucas decided to sit by himself. His excuse was that he had to memorize his locker number (which had been given to him over the phone by the principal the day before.) In actuality, he was feeling very nervous and intimidated by Jesse. _Why are you so nervous about meeting another kid? If Leslie likes him, he's probably really nice just like her._ His conscience was unrelenting for the next few seconds, until the bus doors opened once again, and a dark haired boy with a white & orange striped shirt stepped on to the bus. Lucas figured this must be Jesse, and turned to look at him as he started to walk down the aisle.

Lucas thought that Jesse had slowed his pace for a second as they made eye contact, and he thought for a second that Jesse was going to sit down next to him, but Jesse merely looked away and continued walking down the aisle. Lucas didn't turn around but he knew that Jesse must have been sitting near Leslie. He sighed with relief at first for having avoided a no doubt awkward introduction, but soon found himself wishing that he had sat with the others. It was quiet and discomforting at the front of the bus. A girl who must have been a year or two older then Lucas sat directly behind him, and Lucas couldn't help but feel like she was staring at the back of his head. He felt his ears getting hot and he turned his head to watch the green blur of trees go by as the bus sped toward the school, imagining what it would be like to run 35 miles-per-hour on foot.

* * *

When the bus pulled up to the school, Lucas was one of the first kids to step off the bus. He had deliberately not looked back at Leslie, Jesse, or May Belle. He felt a little bad about ignoring them but he had bigger things to worry about now. He promised himself that he would meet Jesse later on, but for now he had to find the Principals office.

Lucas wandered down the main hallway of the school, looking at each doorway he passed to see which one was the Principals office. He felt like every kid who passed him was staring at him, and Lucas had never felt so out of place in his life. Finally after what seemed like an hour, he found the Administrative building and entered. The secretary smiled at him, and when he handed her the note that his Mother had written, she read it and instantly knew who he was. "You must be Lucas Morton, welcome to Lark Creek!" she said nicely with a smile, "Let me go get Principal Turner."

The secretary stood up and Lucas started examining the office. There were pictures of various athletic teams hanging up, and some awards the school had won from the state for good academic performance (although most of them seemed to come before 2002 or so.) Lucas eventually saw a clock on the wall and noticed that only about 6 minutes had gone by since he arrived at school. _It's going to be a long day_, he thought with a sigh. He had secretly hoped he had been lost in the halls for a longer time, so he wouldn't have to actually be in class for as long.

Suddenly the secretary came walking out again and smiled at Lucas as she sat down at her desk again and instantly turned her attention to her computer screen. A second later, Principal Turner walked into the entrance of the office building to greet the new student. "Hello Lucas, I'm Principal Turner." the man said to the boy as he shook his hand. The Principal was one of the tallest people Lucas had ever met, and he thought his hand was going to be crushed when they went to shake them.

After some introductions to the school, Principal Turner began escorting Lucas to his first class – English with Mrs. Myers. As they walked down the hallway, Principal Turner spoke a little bit about the history of the school. Lucas could tell he was quite proud to be the Principal of the school, but could only quickly nod and fake a smile when the Principal asked him if he liked it so far. Finally they arrived at the door with MYERS written on it. Lucas could faintly hear a woman's voice through the shut door as Principal Turner knocked on the door a few times.

The door opened and Mrs. Myers greeted them. Lucas wasn't sure of what to expect of his teacher, but thought she looked a little menacing when she smiled at him. Mrs. Myers shook Lucas' hand and began to lead him inside the class. Principal Turner patted Lucas on the back before he began to walk away.

As Lucas walked in the class, he felt like all the blood in his body was rushing to his face. Every single student was staring at him, and he suddenly became very aware of the possibility that he might trip, or wet his pants. "Class, this is Lucas Morton, he will be joining us for the rest of the year." Mrs. Myers announced to the class, but not exactly in a friendly way, more of a command. Lucas began to think that his teacher was not very easygoing. Nobody in the class said anything but most of the kids continued to stare at him, other than a few who had stopped caring and turned their attention to something else. Lucas looked up for a second and suddenly realized that Leslie Burke was in his class, and was smiling at him. He also noticed that the seat behind her was empty, and he silently began praying that he got to sit next to the one person he knew.

Mrs. Myers looked around the room for a few seconds, and Lucas started to wonder if she was going to make him talk about himself or introduce himself to his classmates. He was almost positive that he would throw up if he had to. But luckily for him, he got his wish granted when she pointed at the empty desk behind Leslie, "You can sit there Mr. Morton, behind Ms. Burke." she said. Lucas quickly walked down the aisle of desks, dropped his backpack to the floor and sat down quickly as Mrs. Myers turned back to the chalkboard and began explaining more thoroughly how to identify a subject and a predicate.

Leslie turned around in her chair after he sat down and smiled to him. Lucas felt a little better but was still quite red in the face from having to stand in front of the class. He smiled crookedly back to her before she turned around as to avoid getting in trouble for not paying attention. After a minute or so of staring forward, Lucas got the feeling that he was being watched, and he turned his head to the right to see that Jesse was glancing at him with a contemplative look on his face. Lucas broke eye contact first and began staring at the wooden patterns on his desk. Some of the lines in the desk seemed to form shapes, and as he kept staring, his eyes began to unfocus a bit and he thought he saw the shape of a dog for a split second before he blinked and his eyes were focused again. When he looked back, Jesse was now drawing something in what looked to be a sketchbook.


	3. Ten Minute Break

_I revised Chapter 1 to have Jesse turning Twelve instead of Eleven. Although it's only a year, I think some of the dialect and trains of thought may be a little too mature for a 10/11 year old. Also, it coincides a little better with the movie, in my opinion. If you disagree, I apologize._

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 3 – Ten Minute Break**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

The remainder of Mrs. Myers' English class flew by for the students in a whirl of nouns, adjectives, and Scott Hoager tormenting Jesse as usual. Lucas tried his hardest to pay attention to what was being taught, but he couldn't seem to focus on anything remotely scholastic. As soon as he found himself able to keep his thoughts dormant, if only temporarily, he heard the bell ring and saw the students all stand up and began making their way out the door. He noticed most students had left their backpacks in the classroom, which confused Lucas at first, but he remembered that he had Music class next, in the same room, and he realized that a lot of kids probably had the same schedule.

Lucas stood up and looked for Leslie, but she had somehow slipped out – presumably with Jesse – despite being less than 3 feet in front of him for the last 45 minutes. Lucas was soon the only kid left in class, and he started to make his way towards the door to leave, hoping that Mrs. Myers wouldn't stop him. Unfortunately for Lucas, she did just that.

"Lucas, how are you feeling about the material I am teaching? Is it on par with what you were learning at your old school?" she asked, trying her best to look friendly, but to little effect. Lucas nodded quickly, "Yes ma'am," he said as politely as possible. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to address his teachers formally, but he decided to take the safe route. "Good, well you can always ask me if you feel like you are falling behind of the material," Mrs. Myers' said, to which Lucas replied with another nod. She looked back down to her desk, appearing to be grading some papers.

Lucas turned around and walked out of the class, a little mad at himself for lying. In truth, he didn't have a clue what she was talking about for most of the class, which partially contributed to him not paying attention for a good portion of the hour. He began to worry about falling so far behind that he would have to repeat the 6th grade, but he started to remember that he had always gotten pretty good grades in English. _Maybe I can figure it out. Besides, she didn't exactly seem thrilled about me actually taking her up on her offer to help me catch up, _he silently reasoned to himself.

Upon exiting the classroom, he had to cover his eyes as he stepped out into the sun. In the short time he had been inside, the weather had changed from overcast and gloomy, to bright and sunny. The light colors of the school buildings seemed to magnify the intensity of the bright sun. He began walking through the hallway and found himself outside where a bunch of kids were sitting down at various benches, chatting away. Lucas spotted Leslie and Jesse about 100 feet in front him, sitting down next to each other. They seemed to be looking at Jesse's sketchbook and they both had big smiles on their faces.

Lucas almost began to walk towards them, but his legs seemed to have forgotten how to move themselves. He instead brought out the folded piece of paper he had in his left pocket. It was a copy of his class schedule. He opened it up and looked up where his next class was. _Yep, same classroom, just __like I thought._ He noticed that he had a 10 minute break between his first two classes, and although not wearing a watch, guessed that about 3 minutes had passed already.

Lucas found himself looking toward Leslie and Jesse again, this time Leslie looked up from the book and, seeing Lucas standing there, waved at him and signaled him over to them. Lucas felt his prevalent nervousness begin to subside a little as she waved him over to their bench. Lucas smiled a little and began walking over. He quickly felt his stomach tense up however as he saw Jesse turn to Leslie and mutter something, before looking back at Lucas with a less-than-enthusiastic look on his face.

Trying to ignore the weird look he had gotten from Jesse, Lucas took a seat at the opposite side of the bench, and the two other kids turned around in their seats to face him. Leslie had a smile on her face but Jesse was trying to keep himself busy with a new drawing he had started. "Hey Lucas. What did you think of Mrs. Myers?" Leslie asked, with a hint of a smirk on her face. Lucas looked past her to the classroom door he had just came from. "She kinda scares me," Lucas said quietly, and to his surprise, Leslie laughed. "Yeah, pretty much everyone feels that way about her. Right, Jess?" she said, while softly nudging him with her elbow. He looked a bit surprised by the gesture, "Huh? Oh, yeah, scary," he said, a bit absentmindedly. Leslie frowned at her friend's impoliteness as he turned his attention back to his drawing, but she quickly changed the subject.

"So where did you move here from?" she asked Lucas. "I grew up in Georgia, but we've been living right outside of Arlington for a few months." he responded while fidgeting with his hands on the table. Leslie's eyes lit up at the mention of her old home town, "Cool! I used to live in Arlington! We just moved here a few months ago, right before school started," Leslie explained. Lucas looked a little surprised, "You just moved here too?" he asked her, sounding as surprised as he looked. Leslie nodded and smiled, and again turned to Jesse to see if he would say something. Again, he didn't, and Leslie felt the need to kick him in the shin this time to get his attention.

"Ow! What?" he asked, sounding more than a little annoyed by the painful kick. Suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, Lucas decided he would leave the two alone. "I'm just going to, uhm, I'm just gonna wait outside the class," he said quietly and, after standing up, started walking towards the building before Leslie could protest.

* * *

"Nice going, could you _be_ any more rude?" Leslie asked, facing her best friend and sounding genuinely disappointed with him. Jesse looked at her, his expression seemed to be a mix of remorse and annoyance. "What? I'm just not as.. outgoing as you, I guess," he said, although judging by his tone, he didn't believe his own words any more than Leslie did. Leslie rolled her eyes at his excuse, "Come on Jess, I know that, but you aren't rude either. What's going on?" she asked him, still sounding irritated at first, but beginning to sound a little concerned as she asked the question.

Jesse closed his sketchbook and quickly responded, "Nothing. I just-- no, it's really nothing." Leslie still looked skeptical. "Jess, what is it? You can tell me," she said, looking him in the eyes. Jesse looked back for a few seconds but quickly blinked and looked away, feeling awkward suddenly. After several moments, he finally began speaking. "I just.. don't want to lose you..a-as a friend. As my best friend I mean," he said, his face reddening rapidly. Leslie looked taken aback by his statement. "Jess..." she started, but closed her mouth again, still not sure how to respond. "I'm not trying to replace you as my.. best friend," she said, his eyes lit up a little as she said it, "I'm just trying to help him feel less out of place than I did when I first moved here. It was ... it was really hard you know, not knowing anybody," she said quietly.

"Oh..." was all Jesse could say for the next minute. He hadn't considered how tough it must be for a kid to move to a new school months after it has already started, not knowing anybody. He sighed heavily and felt like kicking himself for being so rude earlier. Jesse knew that Leslie was right, being rude was not part of his criteria.

"Jess, please don't be mad at me or Lucas, he really does seem nice and I wish you'd give him a chance," Leslie finally said, looking at him. "OK, I'll talk to him," he said to her, "And, uh, sorry for being so selfish about.. you know," he said sheepishly. Leslie couldn't help but smile now, she had known that their friendship was important to Jesse, but she hadn't really known the weight of its importance until now. She almost wanted to hug him to assure him that she would always be his best friend, but being in a crowded schoolyard guaranteed she wouldn't have the guts to do it.

Jesse and Leslie were perfectly cheerful for the remainder of the break, and they continued to smile and laugh all the way back to their classroom after the first "warning" bell rang. Before they went in the class, Leslie pulled Jesse aside again. "Jess, you know, just because Lucas is our neighbor, we don't have to show him Terabithia.. if you don't want to," she said to him quietly after they had gotten some distance from the door. The halls were almost empty now, and Jesse was surprised by what she had said. "Umm, I-I.. I don't know yet," was all he could manage to say. Jesse tripped over his words, but Leslie seemed satisfied with his answer for now, and they both made their way into the classroom.

They took their seats and Jesse glanced at Lucas, who had a piece of paper that looked like the 'Introduction to Music' sheet they had all received on their first day of class, and he was reading it intently. Jesse sighed a little bit and continued to think about what Leslie had said to him in the hallway; _should we tell him about Terabithia? Would he think it's all dumb or what?.. _After several minutes of inner dialog, he decided that they should get to know Lucas better before sharing something as personal as their magic kingdom. Jesse figured she had just said that to him to ease his mind, anyway. It didn't work.

* * *

The rest of the day went better than Lucas thought it would have, considering the uncomfortable situation at the bench table after English class.

Music class was very fun. Ms. Edmonds was extremely nice and warm, especially in comparison to Mrs. Myers. She had arrived at the classroom early to find Lucas standing near the door waiting for the bell to ring, and after finding out who he was, invited him in the classroom and began talking to him. She talked a little bit about herself and the school, making it seem a lot nicer than Principal Turner had, and Lucas silently thought she would make a good tour guide for the school, if such a job even existed. She had given him some sheets that would help him learn the words to the songs, and even a list of some websites where he could listen to the songs they would be singing, if he had access to a computer. He didn't, but he still smiled and took all the sheets she handed him.

After Music class, as he was walking out the door, he was stopped by Leslie and Jesse. Lucas felt awkward immediately, but soon loosened up as Jesse started talking. "Hey, uhm, I'm sorry for being a jerk earlier. I just was having a bad morning and didn't mean to take it out on you," he said, while offering Lucas his version of a peace offering, a handshake. It was very professional-like, and Leslie wagered that he had learned it from his father. Lucas looked at Jesse's hand for a second before slowly reaching his hand out and completing the hand shake. Lucas felt a wave of relief wash over him as he saw his new neighbors smile at him, and he couldn't help but smile a little himself.

Leslie had noticed that Jesse omitted the specific details of his unhappiness earlier, but she knew it was for the best. There was no point in bringing in a bunch of friendship politics to a boy they had not known a full day. She knew Jesse well enough to know that he was being completely sincere in his apology, and attempt to bury the hatchet, and that was good enough for now.

The next 4 classes and lunch all flew by in a blur for Lucas. His relief and satisfaction over making friends with his two closest neighbors had uplifted him so much that he was not bothered by being the new kid in the rest of his classes. The only uncomfortable moment proved to be when his P.E. Teacher began to reprimand him in front of the class for not wearing his gym glothes, until realizing that he was new to the school and did not have a gym locker yet.

After the final bell rang, Lucas climbed onto the bus to find that Jesse and Leslie were already seated in the same seats they had been in that morning, right in the middle of the bus. He decided he would sit closer to them this time, and he began making his way down the middle of the aisle. As he walked down, he looked to the back of the bus and saw a group of mean-looking 8th graders giving him strange looks. One girl in particular, a larger-set light haired girl with some punky clothes on, was sitting in the middle and giving him a facial expression that registered somewhere between a scowl and an evil grin. Lucas was a little worried that they would do something to him, but as he sat down behind Jesse and Leslie, they seemed to return to their earlier conversation, whatever it was.

Jesse and Leslie turned around to greet Lucas, they were glad to see that he had decided to sit closer to them this time. "Hey, how was the rest of your day?" Leslie asked him. Lucas shrugged with one shoulder, he was slightly grinning but looked tired. "It was alright, except for my P.E. Teacher yelling at me for not having my clothes on," he said. Jesse smirked a little at this. "Mr. Quinn?" he asked, to which Lucas nodded, "Yeah, I think he wanted to be a drill sergeant or something, but got stuck teaching instead somehow. Don't worry about it too much, he's cool as long as you can run the mile every Friday," Jesse advised him, to which Lucas nodded again.

The bus started moving soon after and Jesse and Leslie got into a big discussion, but Lucas began to tune out as he stared out the window at the trees passing by quickly. They seemed to blur together as his eyes unfocused slightly. He began to feel a little carsick after a few minutes, and closed his eyes to try to relieve his dizziness.

The bus finally pulled to a stop outside of the Aarons/Burke driveway, and Jesse, Leslie, May Belle, and Lucas all stepped off. Lucas thanked them for making his first day, as he put it, "stink less." He turned around and began walking down the road back to his house. May Belle made her way back to her house as Leslie and Jesse dropped their backpacks off by the Burke's car, and began walking towards the woods where Terabithia awaited.

* * *

_Still here? Well, thank you for reading my story so far. I honestly had some trouble coming up with how to write this chapter. A combination of stress over finishing this semester of school plus the flu I am just now getting over seems to have imposed some writers block on me. Sort of. I actually have a lot of ideas for later on in the story, but I wasn't sure how to go about writing this one. I hope it turned out okay._

_Thanks to everyone who has read this so far, and especially to those who have left reviews._

_bajam_

Revised 07/08/08


	4. Caught

_Sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been really busy finishing up my classes (all done now, yay) and dealing with some family stuff. I hope to update this more often now that I am on break for summer._

_Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed my story so far._

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 4 - Caught**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

Jesse did not get much sleep that night. He had been tossing and turning for what felt like hours, and although his eyes remained closed, he felt wide awake. He began thinking about his day.

* * *

After departing with Lucas after school, he and Leslie made their way to the forest where Terabithia awaited them, but rather than running full speed as they usually did, they walked the entire way. It took much longer to get there, but neither of them seemed to care. What was strange was how quiet both kids were. A few times during the walk they tried to initiate simple conversation, but they soon found themselves lost in their thoughts as they continued walking through the fields.

Both kids found themselves thinking about their new friend, but the content of their actual thoughts was quiet different from each others'. Leslie was amazed at the similarities between Jesse and Lucas, and was quite surprised to hear that Jesse didn't agree with her after she made a somewhat-joking remark about it earlier in the day. But Leslie knew she wasn't just imagining things. Lucas _was_ very similar to Jesse, at least to who he had been a few months earlier when Leslie had first moved to Lark Creek. Although Leslie had been able to get Jesse out of his shell a little bit since they became friends, he was still very reserved and shy, and Lucas even more so. Leslie occasionally wondered if Jesse would be more popular if he would just once stick up for himself and make himself heard in front of his peers, but she would never tell him that.

Jesse glanced over at Leslie as they continued walking. She was clearly thinking hard about something, and Jesse had a pretty good idea of what it was. Earlier that day, she had made a comment that he and Lucas were very close in personality, and even looks, sort of (except the hair, of course.) She had laughed a bit while saying it, and Jesse thought she may have been kidding, but something in her expression had given her statement a tinge of seriousness, and Jesse wondered if she wasn't being honest. As he really thought about her words, he started to silently agree with her; Lucas was very shy and if Jesse was right, he knew that Lucas would like nothing more than to be invisible at school. Jesse involuntarily shook his head trying to forget the thought, it was all too familiar to him. Not 4 months before, Jesse was exactly the same way.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, they reached the tree with the suspended rope – the gateway to Terabithia. After swinging across it, it was as if a magical spell of silence had been lifted off of both of them, and suddenly they couldn't stop talking, although they both avoided the topic of Lucas at first. As they made their way to their tree fortress, they suddenly couldn't help but run, faster than humanly possible anywhere else. The trees flew past them in a blur of green and brown as the King and Queen of Terabithia dashed through the woods, laughing all the way.

It wasn't until a few hours later that Lucas' name came up again, they were sitting in their treehouse eating some crackers, both of them sitting down with their backs against the front wall of the elevated building. Leslie had begun the conversation in an oddly straight-to-the-point manner, and Jesse could tell that she had been wanting to speak for a while. "Do you think Lucas would like Terabithia?" she asked, almost nonchalantly, but clearly looking for an answer. Jesse blinked a few times, surprised by her question. "I dunno... You want to bring him? I.. I thought.. hmm," Jesse replied but silenced himself before finishing his last statement, but Leslie was already intrigued by his incomplete words. "You thought what?" she asked, sounding very curious. Jesse looked at her, suddenly feeling embarrassed, "I thought this was a place for us," he said quietly.

Now it was Leslie's turn to look a little surprised. "Oh, Jess, no, I didn't mean.. I didn't mean that I want this place to be any less special to us. You don't know how important this has been to me for the last few months.." she trailed off a bit at the end, and Jesse couldn't help but lightly smile at what she had said. He felt the same exact way. Leslie continued, "I just thought maybe Lucas would enjoy this too. I think he could use an escape, and I bet he could be helpful too." Now Jesse was confused, "Huh? How do you mean?" he asked her, again looking at her with an inquisitive look on his face. Leslie smiled softly, "I saw some stuff he had drawn on his notebook during English class. Did you know he draws too?" Jesse shook his head. "Yeah, they looked like creatures and weapons and stuff. Well they aren't bad anyway, maybe not as good as you but.. Oh, deflate your ego Jesse Aarons!" she said while giggling as she noticed Jesse had suddenly developed a very proud, if not smug grin upon hearing her compliment. She playfully slapped him on the arm and they both laughed.

After a few seconds, Jesse spoke again. "I'm just not sure Les, what if he's not into it? What if he.. you know, makes fun of it or something?" he asked her. Leslie seemed to have an answer prepared for this one, "Jess, I'm almost positive it's not going to be like that. I just have a feeling. You should have seen the way his eyes lit up when we made an effort to talk to him, and the way he stares out the window on the bus.." she said. They sat in silence for a few moments, before Jesse stood up and said he wanted to continue working on the map of Terabithia he had been working on. Leslie seemed like she was about to continue pursuing the conversation about Lucas, but she just nodded and grabbed a nearby toolbox and grabbed some nails and a hammer.

* * *

Jesse flipped around in his bed as his recollection of the day's events faded away into reality. He glanced at the alarm clock across the room on the stand next to May Belle's bed. It read 1:45 AM, to which Jesse nearly panicked upon seeing, but he knew that if he got too worked up at this time he would never get to sleep. He tried to shut his eyes again and finally he drifted off to sleep.

His sleep would soon be interrupted again however at the sound of something metal snapping outside. Jesse's eyes shot open at the somewhat-loud noise, and it only took him a few seconds to realize that it must have been the trap his father had set in the greenhouse a few days earlier on his birthday. An animal had found its way into the greenhouse and was eating their plants and vegetables, and despite Jesse's protests, his father had set the trap and informed his son of his intention to kill the animal once it was caught. Jesse couldn't stand the idea of an animal being murdered just for trying to feed itself, and a few seconds later he was out of bed putting his jacket on and quietly slipping out of his bedroom and down the stairs. As he walked through the kitchen to grab his shoes, he glanced at the clock on the wall. _4:30... great._

Jesse slowly closed the screen door behind him as he exited the house and headed into the greenhouse. It didn't take long to confirm his suspicions that an animal had fallen for the trap. As he approached the cage he quickly realized that it was a medium-sized raccoon. He silently prayed that it didn't start making noise as he got closer, but the animal did nothing of the sort. Jesse looked at the Raccoon's eyes, which seemed to be pleading, and he felt his heart break as he again thought back to what his father had said. _I can't let this happen.._ Jesse reached for the handle at the top of the cage and lifted it up, positive that this would cause the animal to become frantic, but surprisingly it remained calm. Jesse could have sworn that it knew it was being saved and was thankful.

As Jesse exited the greenhouse and began walking down the long driveway, he glanced to the Burke's house. None of the lights were on except for the dim porch light, which wasn't all that surprising once Jesse remembered what time it was. His gaze shifted upwards to the upstairs bedroom window which Leslie had informed him was hers. His previously concerned and tired face instantly morphed into a happy smile. Something about Leslie Burke could instantly improve his mood.

As Jesse finally reached the main road, he looked both ways to make sure no cars were coming, _Why would anyone else be awake at this hour? _He crossed the road and walked about 100 feet through the small grass field and stopped at a tree. He finally set the cage down and opened the door. The raccoon crawled out and quickly walked away from Jesse toward the large forest about 200 feet away. Jesse smiled a bit, happy for the Raccoon's freedom, but also hoping that it wouldn't show up again. He knew that his father would keep his word about the animal's punishment for breaking into the greenhouse, should it be caught again.

Turning around and heading back to cross the road, Jesse noticed the sky was just starting to shift from the black night sky to the dark blue that signified the approaching dawn. The world seemed so quiet and calm at this time, even though in less than 3 hours most people would be awake and going about their lives. As Jesse was about to cross the road, he glanced to his left towards Lucas' house, and noticed that a car had just started and was backing out of the driveway. _Must be his mom, jeez, she has to get up earlier than my dad.. Uh oh._ Jesse suddenly remembered that his father would in fact be waking up soon, if he wasn't already, and he had to get back in and place the trap before he noticed it was missing. Jesse quickly crossed the road and walked as quickly as his feet would take him up the driveway towards the greenhouse. The lights in the house were still off, a good sign.

But as he entered the greenhouse, he felt his heart skip a beat as he saw his father kneeling down inspecting some of the plants that seemed to have been disturbed over night. Jesse tried to initiate conversation, but when he opened his mouth no words came out. "What do you think you're doin'?" Jack Aarons asked, looking particularly irritated. Jesse tried to recollect himself, "I-I..I took care of it for you," he said, trying to sound sincere. "Did you now? Now how'd you do that?" Jack asked standing up, not sounding very convinced. Jesse stepped forward and set the cage back down, "I took him to the forest across the road, he's not coming back Dad, I promise." Jesse was hoping this answer would satisfy his father, but it didn't. "What, did he tell you he's gonna stay the hell out of the greenhouse?" Jack asked. Jesse tried to come up with a better answer, but all that came out were nearly incoherent mumblings.

"Jess, you need to understand something, okay? This is not one of your cartoons or whatever, this is just a pest that eats up our food, money we earn, and time we don't have! Now get your head out of the clouds and do as I say!" Jack's voice had gotten louder and more fierce as he went on, and by the time he was finished, Jesse could do nothing but lightly nod and walk out, trying not to cry. Jesse went inside and didn't say a word to the rest of his family for the rest of the morning before heading outside to wait for the bus with May Belle.

* * *

Leslie awoke at 6:30 feeling well rested and refreshed. She silently chuckled to herself as she remembered what she had dreamt the night before. Her and Jesse had discovered how to run as fast as they did in Terabithia, and had won gold medals in the 2016 Olympic games. She got out of bed and started getting ready to face the day. Getting ready was not as a complicated task for Leslie as it was for most girls – she didn't wear much makeup, and didn't dress in a bunch of designer clothing, or spend more than 5 minutes on her hair. She had always concluded that it would be better to save her money for a good book rather than a new pair of shoes.

After breakfast, she bid her parents farewell, but they were hard at work on their book. They seemed to be almost finished with it, but this meant they were as preoccupied as ever, going through it and making sure that they had not made any mistakes or continuity errors. When she was a little younger. Leslie sometimes felt a little neglected at how little attention she was paid when her parents worked on a book, but she knew that they both worked very hard and that they truly cared for her.

Leslie closed the front door behind her as she walked out of her house, and made her way towards the driveway to go wait for the bus on the side of the road. As she reached the driveway and headed toward the road, she saw that Jesse, Lucas, and May Belle were already there. Jesse and Lucas stood near each other but didn't seem to be talking much, if at all, and May Belle was kneeling down searching through her backpack for something. As Leslie got closer, Lucas turned around and saw her coming, and started walking toward her. He looked back at Jesse as he walked, seeing if he had noticed him walking away, but Jesse seemed to either not notice, or care. Leslie smiled at Lucas as he approached her, but her smile was replaced by a confused expression as she saw how concerned Lucas looked.

"Something is wrong with Jess, he won't say more than 2 words to me, I think he had a bad night or something," Lucas said, again turning around to look at his friend, to which Leslie did the same. Jesse looked like a statue from behind, he stood very still, seemingly staring off into the horizon. Leslie and Lucas looked at each other again and Leslie just shrugged her shoulders and they started walking toward Jesse. Leslie had a pretty good idea what Jesse's problem was, _his Father... _She knew how much strife there was in the house because of Mr. Aarons, and whenever Jesse seemed to be down, it usually had a lot to do with something his father had said or done.

"Morning, Jess!" Leslie said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible as she approached Jesse and tapped him on the shoulder. Jesse didn't seem to notice for a second, but then turned his head slightly and looked at Leslie sideways. "Hm." he said in a slight grunt, and turning back to face forward, whatever it was he was looking at. Leslie was suddenly very worried, Jesse's face looked like a mixture of exhaustion and sadness. "Everything OK?" Leslie asked, trying again to sound cheerful and casual, but when Jesse only responded with a 'Fine.', she decided to leave him be for now, knowing he wasn't going to talk right now. She turned to face Lucas who was standing to her right, and tried to make some casual conversation, but after about 30 seconds, they both didn't feel like talking anymore. May Belle eventually found what she was looking for, a purple marker that was buried in her backpack, but when she zipped her backup up and stood up, the normally talkative child didn't say anything either.

For the next 10 minutes, the awkward silence was broken only by a few passing cars on the road and the occasional bird chirping in the trees, until finally the sound of the school bus pulling up snapped them all out of a trance. All 4 kids climbed onto the bus and made their way down the aisles. May Belle took a seat near the front next to her friend Alexandra. Leslie sat down in a seat in the middle of the bus as usual and looked at Jesse, expecting him to sit next to her, but he took the empty seat directly in front of her. Lucas remained standing for a second looking at what had just happened, and then took the seat next to Leslie. They both looked at Jesse and then shared a concerned look with each other as the bus started moving again.

Jesse said nothing on the bus ride, and kept staring out the window as the bus drove down the main road in Lark Creek, occasionally stopping to pick up a kid or 2. Leslie wondered if he was actually looking at the world outside, or if he was too lost in thought to even notice.

* * *

  


_The majority of this was typed up post-2:00 AM, so if I made any weird spelling/grammatical errors, I apologize. :)_


	5. Gray Clouds

_Hey all, thanks for the great reviews I've received so far._

_I went back and revised some parts of my previous chapters, mostly just grammatical/spelling errors but I did edit a few lines in Chapter 1. Nothing that impacts the story, I just wanted to remove a small idea that I was initially planning on building up, but it never happened, and it seems out of place by itself now. If you have a sharp eye and the old chapters look a little different, now you know why. :)_

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 5 – Gray Clouds**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

The rest of the bus ride proved to be just as unpleasant and awkward as it had been since they got on. Jesse seemed to be totally fixated on whatever happened to cross his neverending gaze out the window, but Leslie was almost positive by now that he wasn't actually paying attention to the world outside. After spending so much time in Terabithia with him, she had grown accustomed to some of his traits, and one of them was rarely blinking when deeply lost in thought. Leslie could count how many times Jesse had blinked in the last 5 minutes on her fingers.

Lucas, on the other hand, did not know Jesse very well. He had been immensely relieved the previous day when Jesse had started to finally warm up to him and actually speak to him and joke around, but as soon as he saw how quiet and brooding Jesse was this morning, he didn't dare say a word to possibly get him even more angry then he appeared to be. Lucas still felt quite intimidated by Jesse, especially knowing how much reverence Leslie held him with. She was very easy to talk to and very nice right off the bat, but it seemed like getting Jesse to talk to you, let alone like you and consider you a friend, was very tough.

Not much was said on the bus ride by any of them, except for one point when Leslie leaned forward and quietly said something to Jesse. Instead of turning and answering her in a similarly quiet voice, he responded in a normal volume, and in a very irritated tone. Lucas hadn't been fully paying attention to them and didn't hear what she had said. Leslie, however, had heard it clearly and she looked very confused. "What?" she said, sounded baffled. Lucas couldn't fully hear what Jesse was saying due to the fact that he was still facing the front of the bus rather than turning around to speak to her, but he could have sworn Jesse said something about a giant troll. After Jesse finished talking, Leslie glanced at Lucas for a moment with an expression that read somewhere between confusion and sadness. Lucas felt suddenly even more awkward and began pretending to go through his backpack. Leslie leaned forward again and said something quietly to Jesse, but this time Jesse responded by merely shifting around in his seat and again focusing his attention out the window.

Arriving at school and beginning their first class did nothing to alleviate the funk all 3 kids were now in. It seemed like a gray cloud was hovering over their heads for the rest of the day. Leslie had 4 of her 6 classes with Jesse that day, and she kept considering saying something to Jesse, trying to cheer him up, but she kept deciding against it. _Anything I say is just going to make him yell at me again. He needs time._ She continued reasoning with herself throughout the day. Lucas only had 3 classes with Jesse and Leslie, and he and Leslie had History together. He had wondered if Leslie would say anything about Jesse to him when they got to class, but neither of them wanted to bring it up at the moment. Lucas felt horrible and began to wonder if he had done something to drive Jesse and Leslie apart, and judging by Leslie's near-silent treatment and Jesse's short, snappy mood, he was becoming more sure of it by the minute.

By the time the final bell rang, Lucas was nearly having a panic attack, and he could feel his heart racing at the prospect of seeing his 2 neighbors again. He started picturing them talking and laughing to each other, as if nothing had happened earlier, and then them suddenly becoming silent and distant as he got closer. As he made his way to his locker and then finally to the bus, he tried to take his time so he wouldn't run into either Jesse or Leslie, and he was relieved when the bus had already mostly filled up by the time he got there. He climbed the 3 steps and began to make his way down the aisle. Unfortunately it looked like just about every seat was already filled, until he saw that nobody was sitting next to Jesse or Leslie, who were once again sitting a row apart, and apparently not saying a word to each other.

Lucas walked up to Leslie who was reading a small paperback book. She was sitting by the window and had her backpack and jacket on the seat next to her. "Um, can I sit here?" he asked quietly, to which Leslie looked up and began to look surprised. He was pretty sure that she was going to tell him the seat was taken. "Of course, I was saving it for you," she said with a slight smile, although her eyes still rang of obvious concern for her best friend. Lucas was a little taken aback by her act of kindness, _Maybe she's not mad at me after all, _and he quickly took a seat right before the bus began to drive away from the school.

The ride home proved to be similarly quiet and awkward as the ride to school earlier, other than the lack of Jesse lashing out. Leslie and Lucas quietly went over a few of the details for their English and History homework, but other then that, neither of them wanted to speak much.

After about 30 minutes, the bus stopped on their destination, the road outside of the Aarons' and Burkes' driveway. All 4 kids stood up and made their way off the bus and stood at the entrance of the driveway as it drove off, letting out a loud noise as the brakes released that startled Lucas. Leslie, Lucas and May Belle all stood and watched as Jesse said not a single word and simply began walking up the driveway toward his house. He was like a zombie with no apparent sense of where he was or what he was doing. After a minute of silently watching her brother walk off, May Belle snapped out of it and quickly said bye to the other 2 before running off trying to catch up.

Leslie exhaled strongly, as if she had been holding her breath since they had gotten to school. The sudden noise had caused Lucas to break his stare and turn to face her. "Leslie, I-I'm sorry, if any of this is my fault, I-" Lucas began spurting out before Leslie held up a hand to cut him off. "No, no, it's not you. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with his Dad," she explained finally, now that they were alone. She had wanted to inform Lucas, but not in front of anyone else, especially Jesse. She wasn't sure he'd be so crazy about her telling people about his home life. "Oh," was all Lucas could say after several seconds. "Yeah, they don't really get along. Jess is always telling me about how awful his Dad is. What else could it be?" she asked, almost as if talking to herself. Lucas just shrugged with one shoulder, _How should I know?_ _You're his best friend._

Leslie had begun to stare towards the Aarons house, but she returned her gaze to Lucas. "Do you and your Dad get along?" she asked, surprising Lucas with the sudden personal question. Lucas blinked a few times, "I, uh.. I don't live with my Dad," was all he said, and his tone and expression told Leslie that he didn't really want to talk about it. She figured his parents had probably gotten divorced, or his Dad had walked out on them. She didn't continue on with asking him about it, afraid to upset her other friend. _I'm not going to risk having 2 people not speaking to me in one day.._

"Well, I guess I better get home. See ya tomorrow," Lucas said and began to walk towards his house down the road. "Yeah, see ya," Leslie said, giving him a slight wave and watching him walk away for a few seconds. Glad that this dark day was almost done, she sighed once more and began walking up the dirt driveway toward her house.

* * *

Upon entering her house, Leslie was very quiet, which was unusual for her these days. Since meeting Jesse, her parents had noticed she was overall much happier all around, and was always talking about her day and things that had happened at school. Today, however, she had already decided she would spend the rest of her day alone in her room, hopefully finding a good book to read in her rather large collection. Anything to distract her, if only for a few hours.

Her concern for her friend was not weakened by his outburst on the bus earlier that day, she knew Jesse well enough that he didn't mean to say something hurtful. If anything, that was just more evidence to support her theory about Jesse's father being involved. Jesse often talked about how his Father was nothing but business, how he didn't like Jesse having such an active imagination, and how much he disapproved of his drawing. On the bus, Jesse had gone on about how Leslie had her "head in the clouds," which didn't sound like something Jesse would ever say in a million years.

Leslie shook her head, trying to shake the thoughts out. She had been going over the scene a hundred times already, and it was upsetting her more and more each time she thought of it. Leslie suddenly realized she had gotten upstairs and into her room, but she had been so lost in thought that she hadn't been aware of moving at all. She sighed once more and closed her door before laying down on her bed, closing her eyes and trying to take her mind off of Jesse. It wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

Late that night, Jesse found himself not able to fall asleep once again. He started to get frustrated at his inability to fall asleep, but he stopped himself quickly. _I can't get mad at myself for not being able to sleep._ He sat up and leaned back against the wall, his legs hanging over the side of his bed, and glanced at the clock. _1:30.._ Jesse sighed as he realized how tired he was going to be the next day, even if he fell asleep right now.

The entire day had been nothing short of awful. His confrontation with his father had put him in a terrible mood, and for the entire day he had been too upset to pay much attention to his teachers and his schoolwork, but worst of all, his friends. He had been so lost in thought for the entire day that he hadn't realized that Leslie was so concerned about him. Jesse felt absolutely terrible and hated himself for how he had treated his friends that day.

He started thinking back to the bus ride to school, something Leslie had said to him before she stopped trying to cheer him up. _"Don't let the Terabithians hear you, they thought you were their king."_ Jesse had been almost annoyed by her comment earlier in the day, but now he suddenly realized how much meaning it really held. He started thinking about Terabithia, and what it had become for them; an escape from reality, a place to get away from the stress and problems they faced for the rest of the day. Despite what happened at school that day, as soon as they crossed the river into their kingdom, their problems instantly evaporated. _If my head is in the clouds, that's where I'm keeping it.._

Suddenly an idea sparked in Jesse's head, and he quickly, but as quietly as he could, grabbed his sketchbook, his colored pencils, and his flashlight. He began drawing quickly, inspiration like this rarely struck him and he was taking full advantage of the quiet environment that he only could get at this time of night. Occasionally he thought he would hear a creaking in the floor, and he would shut off his light in case his mom or dad came in, but they were all false alarms, and he kept on drawing.

By the time he finished his work and turned the light off, it was 3:15 AM, but Jesse didn't care anymore. He smiled as he tucked away his sketchbook and lay back down. This time he fell asleep instantly.

* * *

Leslie had woken up very early the next morning, at about 4:00 AM to be exact. She hadn't meant to wake up so early, but she still felt refreshed, which made sense when she thought about it because she had fallen asleep at about 7:00 PM the night before, much earlier than she had intended. For the next 2 hours, she tried to find something to do. She briefly considered going to Terabithia, if only for a short while before the school bus arrived, but she decided it wouldn't be right to go without Jesse.

And there it was again, Jesse, the main focus of her thoughts for the entire previous day, and now Leslie began to think about the entire situation again. It was driving her insane, seeing the same things playing out in her head repeatedly, but she kept hoping she would get an idea of how to help Jesse out, but nothing was coming to mind.

7:00 AM finally rolled around and Leslie exited her house and headed down the driveway to go wait for the bus. As she continued walking, her stomach began to hurt, which she assumed was from the lack of breakfast, but she knew was more likely because of the stress of seeing her best friend still upset. It was a great relief, then, when she looked up and saw Jesse, May Belle and Lucas waiting together, and they weren't quiet, they were all talking and laughing. Leslie couldn't believe it, and froze in place out of total surprise with her mouth agape as Jesse turned to her and waved with a smile on his face.

After a few seconds Leslie finally started walking again, immensely relieved to see her friend seemingly back to his old self. Just before she reached where they were standing, Jesse walked toward her and quickly pulled her into a hug, and quietly said "I'm sorry" to her. Leslie was surprised by Jesse's move, but quickly returned the hug. Jesse stepped back after a few seconds, still smiling even though his face was red now. Leslie noticed he had some dark circles under his eyes and she could tell he didn't get much sleep the night before, but he looked much better today than he did yesterday. May Belle broke out into another singing of "Jess and Leslie sitting in a tree" which caused both of their faces to brighten even redder than they already were.

The next 10 minutes were filled with laughing, jokes, and overall happy conversation. When the bus pulled up and they all got on, Lucas made sure that Leslie took the seat next to Jesse this time, and he took the empty seat right behind them. The ride to school proved to be as cheerful and talkative as waiting for it had been. After about 5 minutes, Jesse handed Leslie a folded up piece of paper with the words "Queen Leslie of Terabithia" written on it. Leslie looked at Jesse who was grinning. She put the piece of paper into her pocket.

Leslie sighed once more, but this time out of sheer relief and contentment.


	6. Paint

_Well I started this one at about 1:30 AM, and I didn't expect to get much done but things just kept popping in my head! :)_

_I want to give another thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed my story! If you have any advice or suggestions please__ let me know._

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 6 - Paint**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

After Jesse returned back to his normal self, time started to fly by for all 3 of the kids. November faded into December and the weather started getting colder by the day, and it was raining quite a bit more than usual, as Jesse pointed out after his plans on going to Terabithia appeared to once again have been foiled by nature. It was a Friday morning and the 3 kids all sat on the schoolbus as it drove through the heavy rain.

Not that he minded if it was raining, heck, he would want to go to his kingdom even if it was 40 below zero. Terabithia had long since become more than just a treehouse or a place in the woods for Jesse. It was an escape. An escape from the rest of the world where nobody picked on them, which could not be said for school. Scott Hoager and Gary Fulcher's constant tormenting had become even more aggravating lately, but Jesse wasn't sure why. It had been constant, almost like white noise until recently (except of course when they shoved him to the floor; it was hard to ignore that.) All he knew was he couldn't be more grateful that Winter break was only a week away, and he would get to relax for a few weeks and enjoy Christmas and the New Year.

Jesse began daydreaming about the upcoming holiday, and how excited he always got for Christmas. It wasn't because of the gifts he got, which were never anything too outstanding, but the overall feeling always made Jesse very happy. It was the only time of the year that his family seemed to get along, if only for one day. His father was likely to actually smile and crack a joke or two, and his sisters were usually too absorbed by their gifts (and more specifically the cash,) to bother picking on him. And then there was New Year's, which Jesse never really cared much about. _Whoopdey doo, this just means I have to remember to change the number I write on top of my schoolwork._

But Jesse had seen something on TV a few nights previously that had got him thinking. His family had been watching the show _Friends_, and the episode took place on New Year's Eve, and one of the characters was trying desperately to get a girl to kiss him when the clock hit midnight. Jesse hadn't really understood what the big deal was, but his mother had explained it to him upon seeing his confused look. "Jess, some people think you're supposed to kiss someone at midnight on New Year's. It's supposed to help you have a good year, or something like that," Mary had explained. Jesse shrugged it off as some stupid superstition but then he began thinking about the upcoming night of the 31st. _If I'm hanging out with Leslie, should I try to kiss her? Would she let me? What if she doesn't want me to? ... Would she kiss me back?_

His mind was filled with these questions every time he started thinking of it, and eventually the flood of his own inquiring conscience began to get highly annoying and he would have to try desperately to think of something else until he could clear his mind. Besides, the thought of kissing Leslie made Jesse feel very uneasy. _She's your best friend. It would be wrong._ _That's not what best friends do._ But a part of him was still curious, and he kept wondering if it would be such a bad idea after all. Sighing, Jesse almost had to restrain himself from slapping himself across the face, for fear of looking even crazier than most people at school already thought he was.

Finally the school bus arrived to Lark Creek Elementary and Jesse couldn't have been happier. Hearing Monster-Mouth Myers drone on about pronouns and adverbs was usually near the bottom of the list of things Jesse was interested in, but his desperation to clear his mind caused him to nearly jog to class. Leslie and Lucas had trouble keeping up with him in the hallway, and at one point Leslie muttered "I've never seen a boy so excited to learn," to which Lucas laughed quietly.

* * *

The rest of the day proved rather uneventful for everyone, and before they knew it they were all on the bus home. It was still raining heavily as they drove home, and the bus appeared to be more empty than usual. Jesse had always assumed that kids either got rides from parents or friends when it was raining, perhaps for fear of their saftey. The bus drivers in Lark Creek never did have a good reputation for driving safely, even in dangerous conditions.

The ride went smooth however, and after they got out at their stop, May Belle pulled out a small Barbie umbrella and opened it up over herself as the bus pulled away; the rain continued pouring down on the rest of them. "Hey May Belle, where did you get that?" Jesse asked, genuinely interested as he had never seen it around before. May Belle looked proud, "I told Alexandra I'd give her my twinkies for her umbrella," she explained. "Doesn't she need it to stay dry?" Leslie asked, to which May Belle started grinning widely, "Yeah but I told her Twinkies make the rain bounce off of you for 30 seconds after you eat one!" Everyone else laughed and Jesse shook his head in slight disbelief but with a grin on his face. May Belle then waved and ran off toward the house.

Meanwhile, Leslie produced a rather large umbrella which she had been carrying, but apparently forgot about until right that moment. She opened it up and the three kids stood there, thankful to finally be out of the rain. "I guess we can't..go today, huh?" Jesse said, looking at Leslie. Leslie merely nodded and shrugged her shoulders, but Lucas was confused, "Huh? Where were you guys gonna go?" he asked. Jesse answered before Leslie, "We usually take a jog through the woods on Fridays, but we can't if its raining," he explained, to which Lucas just said "Oh," and nodded. Of course Jesse and Leslie knew exactly what he meant by his statement, but they still hadn't shared their secret kingdom with anyone yet. They both felt bad about having to be cryptic about Terabithia, and lying about it, to their friend, but Jesse still felt the same as he did a few weeks before when Leslie had brought up the idea of showing Lucas their kingdom: He wasn't sure if he wanted to share their secret with anyone.

Leslie's eyes suddenly lit up as she suddenly remembered something else. "Hey! My parents finally finished their book, and we're going to paint the den today. Do you guys wanna help? It might be more fun than sitting at home on a rainy day.." she offered. Jesse and Lucas looked at each other for a second and shrugged, "Sure," Jesse answered. They all started walking together towards Leslie's house, trying to stay under the umbrella but finding it very difficult. One person usually found their head exposed to the elements, and all 3 of them got into playful pushing matches, trying to bump each other out of the cover.

Finally they reached the Burkes' front door and Leslie got her key out of her now rather wet jeans, and she opened the front door to let them in. "Hi guys, I'm home! My friends are with me and we're all soaking wet!" Leslie said loudly, and they could hear her mom respond from another room, "Hey honey! One second, we'll bring you some towels." Leslie stepped inside and took off her shoes, but the boys remained on her front porch, which was thankfully covered by a small roof, not wanting to get the inside of her house soaking wet.

A minute later, Mr. & Mrs. Burke brought out a stack of towels for the kids and handed them Jesse and Lucas as they made introductions. Jesse had almost forgot that he had never met Leslie's parents before, but Bill and Judy Burke were both very nice and pleasant people, which relieved Jesse to say the least. He was always worried that Leslie's parents wouldn't approve of him for some reason or another. Leslie explained to her parents that the boys could help them paint the den, to which the Burkes were both happy to hear. "Great! It's a pretty big room, we need all the help we can get!" Bill said and patted Jesse on the shoulder. Judy noticed they were still pretty damp, and she offered them to come in and sit by the fireplace and try to dry off for a bit before they got started.

The 3 kids followed Judy through the house, and Jesse and Lucas both found themselves amazed by how nice the place was. Jesse had always seen the outside of the house across his as he grew up and played outside, but this was the first time he had stepped inside and it was much bigger than he thought, especially compared to his smaller, cramped home. Jesse hadn't seen the inside of Lucas' house either, but judging by the look of amazement on his face, he figured that the Mortons' place must have been closer in size to his rather than the Burke's.

Soon they reached the living room where a warm glow radiated from the fireplace. Judy lay one more blanket on the carpet in front of the brick fixture and told the kids to get comfortable before leaving to get back to work on painting the den. "Your parents seem really nice," Jesse said as they all sat down on the large beach blanket. The heat of the fire was a little overwhelming and made Jesse's eyes squint at first, but the heat was very relieving after being in the cold rain, and he could almost feel his clothes drying. "Yeah, they're pretty cool, I guess, I dunno," Leslie said, trailing off a bit. "When are you gonna introduce _me_ to _your_ parents?" she then said with a smirk, poking Jesse on the shoulder. Jesse laughed, Leslie had a tendency to poke at him whenever she wanted to know something about him that he wasn't so forthcoming about. "You don't want to meet my parents, they're scary," he said with a grin. "Excuses!" said Leslie while rolling her eyes, but smiling.

Jesse looked over to Lucas who had his knees brought up almost to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs, and he was staring into the fire. The orange glow of the flames caused his and Leslie's blond hair to glow even brighter than normal. "Hey what about your mom Luke? We ever gonna get to meet her?" Jesse asked, seemingly snapping Lucas out of a trance. He almost said 'Parents' but Leslie had told him about the conversation she and Lucas had a few weeks before, and him telling her about his Dad not living with them. "Oh uh, my Mom.. She works a lot, she's barely ever home," he said fairly quietly. Jesse decided not to prod him with any more questions. Jesse noticed Lucas became very quiet and distant whenever the talk of family came up, and Jesse could only guess he had a similar home life as himself. _But if his Dad doesn't live with them, maybe it was even worse. _He still had a lot to learn about his friend.

Leslie detected the awkward silence beginning to settle and decided to change the subject to something a little lighter. "So only one more week until vacation, you guys excited?" she asked them, to which they both nodded. "Yeah, I need the break too. The work is really piling up for History, I need some time to catch up," Jesse said. Lucas and Leslie nodded, they too had a lot of work to catch up on. Maybe the break wasn't going to be as relaxing as they initially thought.

After about 10 more minutes, they all decided they were dry enough and they made their way to the den, where Leslie's parents were hard at work on painting the walls. "Hey guys, get all dried off?" Bill asked them as they entered the room, to which they all nodded and smiled. "Good, well, grab a brush and get going, we're on a mission to finish this by sundown," Bill said as he grabbed a can of golden paint and handed it to Leslie. Leslie poured some paint into a tray and grabbed a roller brush, while Jesse and Lucas grabbed some smaller brushes and dipped them into the can. "I've never really painted anything before," Lucas said sheepishly as he stood there holding the slightly dripping brush and looking awkward. Jesse offered him some advice, "Just don't hold the brush too tightly, or your hand will cramp up. Also, don't press too hard when you stroke the brush on the wall, or you'll have to keep dipping it in the paint and it will start to look uneven. Just use light strokes and try to hit every part of the wall." Leslie and Lucas looked impressed with his advice and Lucas moved to the wall and started moving the brush back and forth. "There you go, that's good." said Jesse with a smile, before turning to face the window he was going to be painting around.

Bill then stepped out of the room for a minute and returned with a small stereo. "How about some music guys?" he asked as he turned the radio on. "Any preferences?" he asked while turning the dial trying to find a station with good reception. "Try 102.1, I think that's a rock station," Jesse suggested. He didn't really listen to much music, but the few times he had been in the car with one of his sisters, they usually turned it to that station. Bill turned the dial until it landed there, and the room was filled with the sounds of guitar and drums. Bill and Leslie started dancing around and laughing.

As the day went on, everyone kept painting the room, talking, laughing, and overall having a really great time. A few times Jesse would take a break and couldn't help but stare at Leslie's family as they laughed and danced around the room together. He was amazed at how...happy they were. His family was rarely ever laughing together, heck, they were barely speaking to each other at normal volume. It was often tense and gloomy at Jesse's house, but he had somehow gotten accustomed to it throughout his life. But seeing the Burkes able to have to such a great time together and be productive made Jesse almost envious.

* * *

Finally, the room was finished, and just in time for sundown. The orange and red dusk light shined through the windows and seemed to ignite the golden walls on fire. It was almost too bright but it was absolutely beautiful. The 5 painters all sat down and leaned against one of the walls to admire their hard work. "I didn't know I could sweat so much while painting," Lucas said with a grin as he wiped his forehead. "You worked hard Lucas. You all did! Thanks again for the help, I don't know if we would have gotten it done if you two hadn't come home with Leslie today," Bill said with a smile as he looked over at them. "Yeah, we heard so much about you two lately, we couldn't wait to meet you," Judy added smiling. Jesse blushed a little bit at hearing this, he didn't know that Leslie had told her parents about him, and he suddenly felt bad about not telling his parents much about Leslie or Lucas, even though he was pretty sure they wouldn't care.

After they snacked on some popcorn for a little while and continued talking, Lucas said he had to get going and Jesse thought he should do the same himself. They shook Leslie's parents' hands again as they made their way out of the house, and they were all relieved to see that it had finally stopped raining, at least for a little while. Leslie walked them out of the house and stood on the porch as the boys put their shoes back on (which unfortunately had not dried as well as the rest of their clothes.) Lucas finished first and stood up, "Alright well, see ya later. Thanks for the food and stuff Leslie," he said, to which Leslie smiled and nodded, "See ya Lucas" she said along with Jesse.

After a short while of watching Lucas go, Leslie turned to Jesse, "So do you want to go tomorrow?" she asked, a little under her breath. Jesse knew she meant Terabithia right away and nodded excitedly. "Yeah, I've been wanting to but it keeps raining every day.." he said. Leslie nodded, "I read in the paper, the forecast says it's not supposed to rain, so we should be able to go," she said smiling. Jesse stood up and began smiling as well. "Good, well, I'll see ya tomorrow then," he said and turned to head home.

Leslie stood and watched for a few seconds. "See ya tomorrow Jess," she said, but it was not heard by Jesse who was already a good distance down the path.

* * *

_Well this is where the story begins to break away from the exact happenings of the movie and, hopefully, begin to stand on it's own. Some stuff is still borrowed from the movie, but you'll notice I changed some of the specific order of things, I left some stuff out, and I added quite a bit in. I decided to leave a lot of the school stuff, eg. Janice Avery, out for now, but I plan on touching on it later._

_Hopefully I'm not borrowing too much. Like I mentioned at the beginning, the movie-ties will be cut eventually, but I think working with the slightly altered universe is an interesting dynamic for now, and I like finding ways to write Lucas into established scenes from the movie, and seeing how his presence can/would alter things, if only slightly. What do you think?_

_Also, 102.1 FM is really a rock station in the Richmond._

Revised 07/08/08


	7. Standin

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 7 - Stand-in**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

The rest of the night passed peacefully for everybody, and Jesse woke up at about 6 AM as the sunlight began to shine through his window, directly on his eyes. Irritated by the disruption of his sleep, Jesse squinted his eyes shut and flipped over, trying to get comfortable again. But then he remembered it was Saturday and he had made plans with Leslie to go into Terabithia. _Finally._

Jesse sat up in his bed, suddenly rejuvenated with thoughts of seeing his friend and visiting his kingdom, but before he could even put a foot to the ground, May Belle came running into the room with the portable phone in her hand. "Here Jess, it's yer girlfriend!" she teased with a broad smile on her face. Jesse grabbed the phone irritably, "She's not my girlfriend!" he snapped at her, but she was already running out of the room giggling at her own joke.

Jesse raised the phone to his ear and said hello, wondering why Leslie was calling him so early. She usually slept in a few more hours. But wait, this wasn't Leslie's voice...

About 30 minutes later, not far away, Leslie awoke to what sounded like a car door slamming outside. She glanced at her alarm clock and saw it was only 6:39 AM, so she got comfortable again and quickly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

At 8:30, the alarm clock's radio turned on in Leslie's room. The sounds of "Ready or Not" by _Long Since Forgotten_ filled the room and Leslie slowly sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up. She had never been much of a morning person, and it always amazed her that Jesse was able to wake up several hours earlier than her and still be as active and awake, if not more so. After several minutes of trying to wake up, Leslie finally felt like she could stand without her legs giving in, so she climbed out of bed and headed to the shower, hoping it would help her wake up, but it didn't do much. After she was done, she got dressed and headed downstairs while running a hand through her hair, trying her best to straighten it out. Her hair was just starting to reach her shoulders in the back and tended to tangle up easily when it was longer.

Leslie made her way down the stairs, nearly tripping at one point, and into the kitchen, where Bill and Judy were eating some toast and reading different pages of the newspaper. "Morning Les!" Bill said cheerfully as he noticed her enter the room. "Mmm," was all she could manage to get out as she walked toward the table, she was starting to wish she hadn't set her alarm. Leslie took a seat and grabbed one of the last few pieces of toast on the small plate set out and took a small bite. "Didn't expect to see you up for another hour or so, Leslie! We're going to be moving some of the furniture back into the den today, if you and the boys are free, you could help us out " Judy said. "Sorry Mom, Jess and I have plans already," she said, feeling a little guilty that she wouldn't be around to help her parents, but they didn't object.

A few minutes later, Leslie was out the door with her jacket on and her guilt had faded away. Seeing Jesse was much higher on her list of priorities than helping to move furniture. Leslie walked hurriedly toward his house. It was 8:54 when she left her house and they had always met up at exactly 9:00, and she didn't want to be late. But as she exited the front yard and looked toward the Aarons' greenhouse, where Jesse usually stood to wait for her before running out to meet her in the driveway, he was nowhere to be seen. Leslie stopped in her tracks, she didn't want to cross onto their property. She had only met Jesse's mother once and had yet to meet his father, and she didn't want to run into him and have a really awkward moment. _"Hi Mr. Aarons I'm here to meet your son. Oh, what were we going to do? Just, you know, go into the woods together for hours." That wouldn't go well.._

Minutes passed and Leslie started to get a little worried. Jesse had never just not shown up. He would have at least told her if something had come up, or if he had other plans with his family or something, wouldn't he?_ Of course he would! ...So what is it then? _Time continued to pass with no sign of Jesse, and Leslie's worries soon turned into slight annoyance. She had finally realized that Mr. Aarons' pickup truck was nowhere to be seen, and according to Jesse, he didn't go to work on Saturdays. _They probably went into town and he didn't tell me!_

After what felt like at least 30 minutes, Leslie gave up and decided to head back home, but as she began to walk back she suddenly had a thought. _Hey I bet Lucas isn't doing anything today. I feel bad about leaving him out anyway..._ So Leslie averted her path down the driveway and headed towards the main road. She crossed the street and walked on the dirt path on the opposite side, toward Lucas' house. It was very quiet, and the 5 or 6 houses that lined up on the side of the road all seemed to be dormant. The light green car that Lucas had identified as his Mom's a few weeks earlier was gone, so Leslie assumed she was at work again. Lucas hadn't gone into specifics about where his Mom worked, but Leslie had a feeling that she worked 2 full time jobs, and was hardly ever home.

* * *

Leslie treaded across the small front lawn, stepped onto the porch and knocked on the front door. A small wooden bench sat to her left in front of the window, but it looked like nobody had ever really sat on it before. It was really the only indication that anyone even lived in the house, Leslie noticed. The rest of the outside of the house looked almost lifeless in a way, and if there had been a real estate sign planted on the front lawn, Leslie would have been convinced this was the wrong house.

Her thoughts were interrupted however by the sound of the door being unlocked from the inside. The door slowly opened and Lucas stood there rubbing his eyes, clearly having been woken up by Leslie's knocking. "L-Leslie, what's..hey, what's up?" he asked sleepily. Lucas was squinting his eyes as the daylight hit him. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" she asked, sounding slightly amused, she could tell Lucas wasn't much of a morning person either. "Sorry, I was sleeping still," he said while stretching his arms over his head. "No, really?" Leslie replied in a very sarcastic tone, and with a grin on her face. Anyone would have made that judgment, seeing as Lucas was still wearing pajama bottoms and a worn out t-shirt, although his hair always looked like he had just gotten out of bed anyway. Lucas answered her sarcasm by sticking his tongue out at her and laughing, before inviting her inside.

Leslie stepped inside the house and looked around, it was a modest house, kept fairly clean, but there was a noticeable lack of any kind of decoration or personalization. There was merely some simple furniture around, most of which looked like they were rarely used. "Well, this is my house. I'm really not supposed to have people over when I'm home alone, but I guess its OK as long as you don't like, write your name on the wall or something, my mom won't know," Lucas said. Leslie laughed a bit and promised she wouldn't deface any of the walls, and followed him as he walked into the kitchen. "So what's going on today? I figured you and Jess would be doing something now that it's not raining for once," Lucas asked while grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. Leslie leaned back against the counter she was standing next to, "Yeah, we were supposed to but he's off doing something, I guess. He didn't tell me he was going to be busy so I waited for him for a while, but he never showed up.." she said, sounding more disappointed as she went. Lucas could tell she was bummed out too. "Oh, well that stinks. I mean, I'm not doing anything if you want to do something, I dunno," he offered, trying to sound casual but Leslie could tell that he was hoping she'd say yes, and fortunately that's exactly what she planned to do. "Sure! I guess there's not a _whole lot_ to do, but uhm... hey, if you want we could go check out the woods by me and Jess's houses," she offered, sounded very excited about the idea. Lucas looked a little surprised, "The woods? You mean the ones you and Jess go to all the time?" he asked, and Leslie nodded, so Lucas just shrugged, "Sure yeah, sounds cool. Let me go get ready. You can uhm.. you can wait here if you want, just ah.. be careful of.. OK nevermind, I'll be right back," he said very quickly before turning around and running back to his room to get changed. Leslie found her self chuckling at how fast her friend had suddenly spoke, it reminded her a lot of Jesse when he got excited or worked up about something, he seemed to speak a mile a minute.

Five minutes later Lucas was changed and ready, and they exited through the front door. Lucas locked the front door with the small set of keys he carried with him, before pocketing the keyring as they started to walk back towards the Aarons and Burke property. They made some small talk along the way, mostly about school and recalling fun moments from the day before while painting the Burkes' den. "Are your parents happy with the way it turned out?" Lucas asked her as they walked, and Leslie nodded, "Yeah, they are, and they seemed really thrilled that I got you and Jess to help out. They're pretty happy I've made some friends, I didn't really have many at my old school.. in fact, I didn't really have any," she said, somewhat quietly as she began thinking about her past. Lucas looked over at her as they kept walking and saw the pensiveness on her face. "Yeah, same here, I never really fit in anywhere. I've never really had..." he started to say but stopped himself from talking, but Leslie knew what he had started to say: _a friend._

They reached the entrance of the driveway and started walking down it towards the large fields in the back which led to the forest. As they passed the Aarons house, Lucas looked over at it and back to Leslie, "It's kinda weird that Jess just didn't show up today, isn't it? I mean, he doesn't seem like he would just ditch you," he said to her. Leslie shook her head, "No, it is very strange, but I'm sure something important just came up.." She didn't sound very convinced by her own explanation.

* * *

After about 5 more minutes of walking and talking together, Leslie and Lucas reached the opening in the wooden fence that led to the huge fields. They had been having such an involved conversation that Lucas had been mostly staring at the ground in front of him and not paying attention to where they were going, but when he looked up as he noticed Leslie come to a stop, his breath was taken away by the beautiful scenery. He stood admiring it for several seconds before he was finally able to let out a "Wow..." Leslie smiled as she realized her friend had never seen what was essentially her and Jesse's backyard. She had gotten so accustomed to running through here in the past few months that the initial shock of seeing such a beautiful place was mostly lost, but seeing her friend's amazement reminded her of how surprised she was when she first saw it.

After a minute of standing frozen in admiration of the scenery, Lucas leaned on the wooden fence and placed his arms on the top bar, which was almost perfectly even with his chest, as he continued to examine the land. Leslie watched and suddenly realized that she was several inches taller than him, which made some sense since he was about 8 months younger than her (and almost 3 months younger than Jesse, no less.) Jesse was very anxious to grow taller, and he made it a big point to inform Leslie when he had grown taller than her, if only ever so slightly. Leslie thought that Jesse was secretly a little bothered by a girl being the same height as him when they first met, and on top of her victory in the footrace they had on the first day of school, she knew his competitive side was making him measure his height often, and go on to brag about it later. But if the height difference bothered Lucas, Leslie couldn't tell.

Finally after a few more minutes, Lucas finally spoke again and turned to face Leslie, who was now leaning on the fence next to him and looking out to the fields and the forest and mountains behind them. "It's...great. You must just sit out here for hours sometimes and daydream..I know I could," he said to her, but she just shrugged. "I guess, I got used to it after a while," she said, and Lucas nodded before Leslie continued. "Do you sit around and daydream a lot?" Leslie asked. "Uhm... yeah. I'm not like crazy or anything, but sometimes I get lost in my thoughts... Don't you ever just look towards the sky and your imagination just goes crazy?" he asked her, while starting to look up.

Leslie looked up as well. The blue sky was covered with many small patches of clouds. "Mmm.. no, not really... What do you see up there?" she asked him and looked back towards him. Lucas continued to look up for a second before looking back at her. "I dunno, anything. Sometimes I see stuff in the clouds, or other times I just imagine if anything else exists out there... Past the clouds and the sky," Lucas said in a pensive voice, almost sounding like he was recalling a good dream he had. Leslie couldn't help but smile at the wonderment in his statement, "That's pretty deep for an 11-year-old," she said. Lucas smiled back, "Hey, I'm gonna be 12 soon!" he replied in a jokingly-irritated voice. They both laughed for a few seconds before Leslie spoke up again.

"You want to run out to the woods from here? Jess and I usually do, it makes for better time and all," Leslie asked, but Lucas looked a little hesitant. "I dunno, you're the professional runner, I don't think I could keep up," he said, sounding unsure. "Oh come on, you'll be fine, I bet you're faster than you think," she said trying to encourage him. Lucas just shrugged and they started running through the fields. Lucas had been right, he couldn't keep up with Leslie's full sprint, and Leslie decided to slow her pace a little to keep even with him. She had forgotten that Lucas wasn't a runner like Jesse, and she suddenly felt bad about pressuring him into essentially replacing her best friend for the day.

Lucas was able to keep his pace though, despite being winded early, and a few minutes later they had reached the entrance of the forest. They ran to the giant tree that stood in the entranceway and used their hands to help stop their momentum. Leslie's physical shape had her sweating but not winded, but Lucas looked exhausted. "Jeez.. you are quick.. Good thing we weren't... racing for money..." he said between deep breaths as he leaned over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. "Yeah.. sorry.. I forgot you aren't really a runner, I guess I was thinking I was with Jess for a second. But hey, you're really fast!" she said, although the last part was sort of a white lie, and Lucas wasn't buying it. "Yeah right. You were slowing down for me the whole time!" he said with a grin, and Leslie knew he wasn't really upset about losing the "race."

After a few minutes, Lucas felt ready to move on and they started to walk through the woods. Lucas was taking the whole scene in, he kept seeing plants and trees that looked cool and kept saying how he wished he had a camera. Lucas thought they were just walking through the woods with no certain destination in mind, but Leslie kept heading in the same direction, and Lucas started to get the feeling that she knew where she was going.

Sure enough, after about 10 minutes they reached an opening in the forest and came to a giant river. The water was flowing quickly and the sound of the stream clashing against some of the larger rocks that stuck above the water was loud and peaceful at the same time. "Wow, it's really risen up since we had all that rain lately..." she said, almost to herself. "You come by here a lot?" Lucas asked her, but before she answered he looked up and noticed there was a big rope suspended in midair, tied to a large tree branch that hung directly above the river. "Whoa! Did you guys put that there?" Lucas asked excitedly.

Leslie climbed on to an old tree that had fallen what must have been many years before, and grabbed one of a few long sticks that lay on the ground nearby. It looked almost like a scythe of some kind, the stick was about 6 feet long and had a small hook-shaped indent at the end. "No, we didn't put it up here. Jess said it's been here for as long as he can remember, but we use it all the time, it's great!" she said as she used her tool to reach out and grab the rope to pull it towards her. She grabbed the rope with her hands and set the stick back down on the ground. "Wanna try it?" she asked and held it out for him to grab, but Lucas once again looked hesitant. "I dunno, it doesn't really look safe.. What if it breaks?" he said, his voice was shaking a bit, he was clearly nervous. Leslie just smirked a bit, "Oh come on, we've used it a million times, it's not going to break, look how thick the rope is," she said, trying to convince him. Lucas slowly walked forward and climbed up the log, grabbing the rope from Leslie.

The rope made hardly a sound when it snapped in half.

* * *

_More coming soon, I've had some free time and inspiration lately, always a nice combo. :) Thanks for reading!_

_Written between 2:00 and 4:00 AM, so my apologies for any grammatical/spelling/intelligence errors that may show up. ;)_


	8. Guilt

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 8 - Guilt**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

In his 12 years of being alive, Jesse could not remember ever having a better day than this Saturday. His teacher, Miss Edmonds, had actually called him up early that morning and asked if he wanted to accompany her to an art museum in Washington D.C. Jesse couldn't believe it, he had almost tripped while running down the stairs towards his parents' room where his mom was still sleeping. Her answer had been sleepy and incoherent, but Jesse knew he had heard her say 'Yes' when he asked if he could go. The next 30 minutes had Jesse scrambling around trying to get ready, trying on different shirts and making sure his hair wasn't messed up. _Relax, it's not like it's a date, she's your teacher._ His conscience wouldn't shut up, but Jesse didn't care, he was too excited about seeing Miss Edmonds outside of school.

Jesse couldn't really put words to his feelings toward the young teacher. All he knew was that she was nice, beautiful, and seemed to care about him, which was more than could be said about most other adults. _Adults._ That was just the thing, she was an adult and Jesse was just a kid. Even though he considered the possibility that he may be in love more than a few times, he secretly knew (and feared) that his feelings were all in vain due to their age difference. But it didn't matter right now, because she was coming to pick him up and take him to a museum. _I've never even been to a museum. I wonder if they have a gift shop. Should I buy her something to say thanks?_

Before he could get too wrapped up in his thoughts again, Jesse forced himself to stop doubting his choice of clothing and put his shoes on. He made perfect time. Miss Edmonds' Volvo stationwagon pulled up to the side of the road in front of their driveway when Jesse was about 20 feet away. He smiled and waved at her as he ran up to her car. She smiled and unlocked the passenger door for him. Jesse couldn't stop grinning as he opened the car door and climbed in. "Hey. Ready to go?" Miss Edmonds asked him with a smile as Jesse locked his seat belt in. "Yes ma'am," he said as politely as possible as she put the car into Drive and started to pull forward. Jesse glanced out the window to his right and saw Leslie's house, and for the first time that morning Jesse remembered that he had made plans with Leslie that day. _Nice going.. She's gonna be mad. _His stomach began to cramp up as he began to feel guilty about ditching his friend.

But it was too late, he couldn't tell Miss Edmonds now that he didn't want to go. She had already driven out to his house, which was quite out of the way, and they were already on their way. Miss Edmonds, however, noticed Jesse staring at the house for several seconds. She could see the reflection of his face in the rolled up passenger window and he looked very thoughtful, in great contrast to his happy smile only moments earlier. "Forget something?" she asked, but Jesse quickly turned around and shook his head no, so off they went towards Washington.

The trip was just over two hours long, but it couldn't have felt any shorter to Jesse. The first five minutes had been a little awkward, with Miss Edmonds asking a few random questions that Jesse gave short, noncommital answers to, but as the ride went on he started feeling a little more comfortable and began talking a lot more. They soon got into wild conversations of every topic that came to mind, from what they were looking forward to seeing at the museum, to school, to music. Miss Edmonds had a tape of herself singing various songs, some of them which Jesse recognized from Music class, and others that were new to him. All he knew was that she was a great singer.

"Wow, you've got a really beautiful voice," he said quietly after hearing one of her songs, his face getting quite red as he said it. Miss Edmonds smiled broadly at the compliment, "Thank you! You know, you aren't short on talent yourself, Jess. I was really impressed with your drawings the other day. You could make it big someday as a graphic designer, or an illustrator, or something." Jesse suddenly remembered that she _had_ picked up his sketchbook off the ground after Scott Hoager and Gary Fulcher had knocked him down and it flew out of his hands. She had complimented him then, but he was so nervous about talking to her that it hadn't fully registered with him that she had said anything about his drawings. Her asking him to go to the art museum started to make more sense.

After they arrived at the museum, they found parking close by to the building and walked in. When they reached the front desk Jesse got out the 5 bill he had grabbed at home, but Miss Edmonds just shook her head with a smile and held up 10 for the receptionist and said "My treat." Jesse thanked her and smiled as they walked in. As soon as they reached the first room of the gallery, Jesse thought his jaw was going to hit the floor. There were dozens of large canvases on the walls, and many mechanical contraptions set up around the show room floor. Jesse walked up to the first painting he saw and was absolutely amazed by the detail in it. He had no idea who painted it, but there seemed to be countless people in the painted city. Every person had some kind of individuality that separated them from the next, they were all doing different things but it all looked so lifelike, almost like it was an ancient photograph of a European city.

For the next few hours they walked nearly silently through the several rooms of the large exhibition, taking in the variety of artwork that was being displayed. Jesse was particularly interested in the paintings of people. Portraits had always been one of his favorites, but he knew his own work was nothing compared to these masterpieces. He came across a small book of various paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci and flipped through the pages, amazed by everything he saw. Miss Edmonds came up behind him and started examining the book over his shoulder. "You like Da Vinci, huh?" she said, surprising Jesse slightly. He hadn't noticed her hovering there. "Yeah, he's amazing.." he said, sounding as overwhelmed as he had looked since the moment they stepped in the building. "I think he started in notebooks too, just like you. Maybe you'll be the next Da Vinci," she said, and Jesse chuckled a bit, sure that she was egging him on, but she looked sincere, so he didn't say anything.

Around 12:30 they both agreed they should get something to eat from the café next door. They entered the small eatery and ordered sandwiches, Jesse a BLT and Miss Edmonds an Egg Salad. This time Jesse insisted that he pay his own way, and Miss Edmonds respected his wish. They took their food at sat down at a small table in the middle of the room. They spent the next few minutes talking about their favorite things at the show, and Miss Edmonds reminded him that they still had a few more areas to see in the large show. She had been very surprised earlier to discover that Jesse had never been to a museum before, she had been sure that his love of painting and natural talent had been sparked by seeing an exhibition at a younger age, but he had told her that it just "sort of naturally started interesting him one day."

As they were finishing their lunches, Miss Edmonds leaned back in her chair and looked out the windows to her right at the sunny sky. "I'm glad it finally stopped raining for a day. I was almost starting to think it was like that Japanese legend where the Sun goes into hiding for weeks," she said. Jesse looked astounded at the random reference. "Wow, you know everything," he said to her. Miss Edmonds sat up straight again and looked to him, "Not by a long shot, but I try to keep an open mind, and you'd be surprised what finds its way in there," she said, almost mystically. Jesse nodded, "That's what my friend Leslie Burke told me, she told me to keep my mind wide open," he said, thinking about his best friend. Miss Edmonds looked impressed, "Leslie Burke is absolutely right. An open mind like yours, you could create... a whole world."

There it was. _Terabithia._ Jesse's stomach cramps of guilt suddenly returned in full force. _How could I ditch Leslie just to be with Miss Edmonds? What is wrong with me?_ Jesse put down the cup of water he was about to take a drink from and began to stare down at his food plate. Miss Edmonds watched him for a minute, he had gone from very cheerful to suddenly quiet and contemplative in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, Jesse looked up at her again. "Sorry, Miss Edmonds, I don't feel so good. Do you think you could take me home?" he asked very quietly, and he looked suddenly very tense and stressed out. "Uhm, sure, Jess. Are you OK?" she asked as they stood up, Jesse just nodded but didn't say anything as he grabbed his coat off of the back of the chair and they walked out to the car.

The ride back to Virginia was quiet different than the one to Washington earlier that day. Jesse hardly said two words.

* * *

Time seemed to be moving in slow motion for Leslie. She had watched Lucas take hold of the rope after she handed it to him, and seen him cautiously give it a few tugs. He grabbed the large rope with both hands and looked ready to swing across but he decided to give it a strong tug to test it one last time. That last pull had done it, and the rope snapped cleanly in half at the upper part, near where it was tied to the branch. Before she could react to catch him, Lucas had stumbled backwards, falling off the log and landing on his back on the forest floor behind him. It was at least a 2 foot drop and Lucas started gasping for air, the wind was knocked out of him after the hard landing.

"Oh my gosh! Lucas!" Leslie cried out before jumping off the log and kneeling next to him, "Are you hurt? Are you OK?" Lucas continued gasping for breath but a few seconds later, "My ankle, agh, I hurt it when I slipped off.." he pointed at his left ankle which was positioned strangely on the ground. Leslie could tell that he had tried to land with it but it had slipped under him from the shifting weight and the backwards force, and he had most likely twisted it. After a minute, Leslie was still kneeling down next to him, making sure he wasn't hurt anywhere else, and Lucas suddenly realized he was still holding on to the now-severed rope. "Leslie...I'm so sorry.. I didn't mean to break your rope..." he said quietly, now looking terribly guilty on top of being in pain.

Leslie shook her head, "Don't be sorry Lucas. If you hadn't tugged on the rope it would have snapped when you.. when..." Leslie couldn't finish her sentence as tears started to well up at the thought of what might have happened. She knew how many jagged rocks stuck out of the river bank, and chances were...

* * *

Around 3:00 PM, Miss Edmonds' Volvo pulled up to the driveway outside of Jesse's property. Miss Edmonds put the car in Park as Jesse began to undo his seatbelt. "Thank you very much," he said, trying to sound sincere but he still sounded distracted, Miss Edmonds could tell. "No problem Jess. Maybe we could do it again sometime," she offered with a grin, and Jesse nodded but only offered a slight smile in return, "Yeah, for sure... Well, see you on Monday," he said, and without another word he stepped back from the car and headed up the driveway. Miss Edmonds let out a long sigh of concern as she put the car into Drive and pulled off.

Jesse walked quickly down the dirt road towards his house with his hands in his pockets. He made himself not look over at Leslie's house, for fear of seeing her in her bedroom window, leering at him. _No doubt_ s_he's gonna be upset when I talk to her again... If she talks to me again._ After what seemed like several hours he reached his back door and opened the screen door.

"Hey guys, I'm home," he called out as the screen door slammed shut behind him. He was surprised to hear May Belle yelling from the other room as he stepped into the kitchen, "See, I told you!" she had yelled, but Jesse was not sure who she could be talking to. He stepped into the living room and was surprised to see Leslie and Lucas sitting on the couch a little to his left. Upon seeing him enter, they both looked relieved but Leslie instantly jumped up and hugged Jesse tightly, she looked like she had been crying not too long ago. Jesse stood awkwardly, barely returning the hug. He was very confused why her friend was so happy to see him. Mary Aarons however, only looked extremely angry. "Jess, where on earth have you been all day?" she asked in a harsh, inquisitive voice, one that Jesse rarely heard her use.

Jesse suddenly realized why Leslie had been so relieved to see him, they had no idea he had gone into the city. _But I told Mom.._ "Mom, I told you, I was in the city with my teacher, Miss Edmonds, we--" he started to explain, but was cut off by his now-yelling mother. "Your TEACHER?! Why would you go off with your teacher to the city? What were you thinking?" she yelled, and Leslie and Lucas now looked extremely awkward at having to witness their friend getting yelled at. "It was.. I.. We went to an art museum in Washington, Mom. I came in and told you this morning and you said it was fine.." he said, hoping she wouldn't take his explanation as a lie, which it wasn't. Mary looked like she was going to start yelling again but she just sat there for a few seconds before bursting into tears. She stood up and this time it was her who pulled Jesse into a hug. Jesse stood there for a few seconds, again awkwardly returning it.

"I'm sorry for yelling, Jess, but you have no idea how worried I was... we all were.. Your friends came by a few minutes ago and were looking for you, and of course I had assumed you were with them today... and we thought you might have been kidnapped or..." she said, not finishing her sentence but Jesse knew what she was going to say. Mary pulled away from her son after several seconds and looked him in the eye. "You're grounded, and don't ever do that again!" she said through her tears, but sounding stern. Jesse looked up and only nodded, "I promise I won't." Mary looked at Leslie and Lucas who were still sitting on the couch. "Take a minute to say bye to your friends, and then get to your room," she said to Jesse before turning to head into the kitchen.

Jesse faced his friends who remained sitting and looking at him. Before they could say anything, Jesse spoke. "Les, I'm real sorry about today. I didn't mean to ditch you, I--" but he was cut off by her putting her hand up. "Don't apologize, Jess, I'm just glad you're OK. I was worried sick when I found out you weren't home, you have no idea.." she said, looking down at the ground. Lucas didn't say anything but was nodding his head lightly next to her. Jesse stood there and watched his friends for a few seconds, and the earlier guilt he had felt about ditching Leslie was suddenly amplified by the additional guilt of making his friends and family worry about him.

After a minute Leslie stood up and helped Lucas stand up, his ankle was still clearly bothering him and Jesse looked concerned at seeing the boy in pain. "Whoa, what happened Lucas?" he asked. Leslie and Lucas looked at each other with concerned expressions. "Uhm.. I'll tell you on Monday, Jess. We better go before your Mom gets mad at us for staying too long," Leslie said hurriedly, and her and Lucas started heading toward the back door. Lucas had a very noticeable limp to his step. Jesse didn't argue and just nodded and bid them farewell as they left.

Jesse didn't wait around for his Mom to come back, and he ran up the stairs into his room, and was a little surprised to see May Belle sitting on his bed, apparently waiting for him. He forgot that he had heard her when he first walked in, but had never seen her when he got to the living room. He now figured that she was hanging around on the stairs listening in on their conversation. "Hey Jess.." she said quietly as he entered the room and shut the door behind him. "Hey," he said while he removed his jacket. "I tried to tell Mom that your teacher had called and you were goin' out with her," she said, as if confessing to him. Jesse remembered that she had been within earshot when he asked his Mom if he could go earlier. Jesse grinned at her and walked up to her, "Well, thanks for trying to cover for me," he said while patting her on the arm. To his surprise, May Belle stood up and hugged him around the waist. "May Belle, wha--" he started to ask but was again interrupted. "I'm glad you're OK," she said.

Jesse was about to explain that he had never been in any real danger, but he decided to just hug her back before she broke away and headed downstairs. Jesse sat on his bed and then lay down on his back, putting his hands folded up behind his head. He started to think about his day and before he knew it, he had drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_Did I have you going at the end of the last one? :) _

_Hopefully this wasn't too boring, I had some trouble coming up with the right words, and yet again I am writing this between 2:00-4:00 AM, so if it didn't come out so great, I apologize._

_As you can tell, this is where the story will really start to break away from the movie. I know I've said that before, but I mean it this time! I hope you've all enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it. Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed my story so far._


	9. Drawings

_Hey everyone. The artist-formerly-known-as-bajam here. First, you will notice that I have changed my pen name, again. Sorry for all the confusion._

_I want to sincerely apologize for such a long wait for an update to this story. I haven't forgotten about it. I've just been very busy for the past few months and despite my best efforts, I could not come up with anything for the story that I really liked. I know this chapter is on the short side, but I wanted to divide this scene and the next with something more than just a line break, and I also wanted to update!_

_Since last updating this story, I've turned 21 years old. Hooray for me? Well, anyways, I am again very sorry about the long wait. I am hoping to continue working on this as much as I was when I started it.._

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 9 - Drawings**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

Sunday could not have gone by any slower for Jesse.

His trip to Washington had caused him to be forbidden to see his friends the entire day, not to mention getting mandatory extra chores around the house. It could have been worse though. For whatever reason, Jesse's mom had not told his father about what had happened, at least not yet. The looming threat of Jack Aarons storming in screaming was making Jesse uneasy. But Jesse also figured that she would have told his father by now if she was going to. His mom had been mad, sure, but she knew he wasn't deliberately trying to scare her by disappearing for an afternoon, and she quickly calmed down after he got home safely.

The extra work around the house wasn't bothering Jesse so much. It was not being able to see Leslie that was making the day go by particularly slowly. She was about to tell him something important before she left, Jesse knew it. There was something subtle but telling in the way she had said it.

"_I'll tell you on Monday" ..._

Stretching his mind as far as he could, Jesse couldn't think of what could be so important. All he knew was Lucas had apparently gotten hurt, judging by his severe limp when walking out of the house the day before, and Leslie wanted to tell him something.

_This can't be good.._

But rather than sitting around dwelling on it all day, Jesse tried to keep himself busy after he finished scrubbing the shower walls – A task usually left for his mom to do, but had become part of his itinerary for the day due to his punishment. Putting away the cleaning supplies, Jesse went to his room and shut the door, relieved to finally be done with his chores. May Belle wasn't around, presumably down the road at her friend Alexandra's house. Jesse felt a little relieved that he could be alone. Not that he didn't like May Belle, but he didn't need her pestering him with more questions about why he had gone to Washington with his teacher; she had already fired off at least 12 different questions about it before breakfast that morning.

Jesse sat down on his bed and lay on his back, putting his hands behind his head. Staring at the ceiling, he began to remember a few years back, when he had some plastic stars that stuck to the ceiling, and glowed in the dark. He had taken them down on his 10th birthday because he thought he was too old for them, but now, looking up at the plain surface, he kind of missed them.

But soon, despite his best efforts to keep himself distracted, Jesse couldn't help but continue thinking about his friends.

_What was it that Leslie wanted to tell me? Why such a big secret? I mean... I guess if it can wait 'til Monday to find out, it can't be that big of deal... Can it?... What if it's really bad news and she just doesn't want to tell me?... No, if it was really bad, she would have told me then. Right?_

"Shut up!" Jesse said to himself quietly as he sat up again. Suddenly there was a knock at his door. "Yeah?" he asked, his voice slightly cracking as he said it, which made him cringe. He hated when it did that. The door opened and Mary walked in. "Mom..H-hey.." Jesse said, looking as surprised as he sounded; his mom very rarely came into his room. "Hey, Jess," Mary said, "I just wanted to tell you that you did a good job with the chores." Mary smiled at Jesse as she said this, but he kept a straight face, still surprised that she had come up to his room.

Mary walked over and sat down on Jesse's bed next to him, the old frame creaking slightly under the extra weight. Mary looked around the room as if it had been years since she had been up there. Jesse thought it might have been true. "Ahm.. Jess... I didn't tell your father about what happened," Mary said as she turned to look at him. Jesse looked back for a second but broke eye contact and looked down at his feet, which were hanging over the side of the bed, barely touching the floor. "Oh... Thanks," Jesse said, although he instantly regretted adding the last part in fear of his mom being offended, but she seemed to understand exactly what he meant.

Mary continued to speak. "Jess, can I ask you something?" she began, and Jesse nodded. "Why did Miss Edmunds invite you to go to that museum?" she asked. Jesse's mind raced suddenly, and he wanted to say a million different things at once, and couldn't seem to decide which one to say first.

_She saw some of my drawings and thought I was good.._

_She wanted to be able to do something nice for me, it was a nice change.._

_She's the only adult who cares about me..._

"She... she saw some of my drawings and thought it would be a good way to inspire me, I guess," he finally went with. Jesse was continuing to stare at the socks on his feet which were starting to wear down from use, but he could see his mom nodding in his peripheral vision. "Your drawings... Can I see your drawings?" she asked, sounding hopeful. Jesse looked up at her with wide eyes. Nobody in his family had ever asked to see any of his drawings, although, he never offered to show them either. He knew his father did not approve of his hobby, and he had always assumed his Mother could care less. But he managed to nod and reach under his bed for his sketchbook.

Jesse handed the book to Mary and she opened it up to the first page, it was the picture of a turtle with a jetpack on it's back. It was one of the first drawings Jesse had done and he always felt it was one of his better ones. Not only was the drawing decent but it had a funny message, the tortoise would use a jet-pack to beat the hare in a race. Mary chuckled at the picture, obviously understanding the meaning and Jesse couldn't help but smile. Mary continued to flip through the book, stopping on each page for a few seconds and examining them, she seemed thoroughly impressed with each one.

As Mary continued to flip through the book, she came across countless pictures of creatures that Jesse had drawn from Terabithia. Of course, to her, they just looked like random fantasy-based creatures. The true meaning of them was known only to Jesse and Leslie.

Soon she reached the last and most-recent drawing in the book, and she stopped and stared at the picture. Jesse stopped smiling when he remembered what was on that page. It was a picture he had drawn of Leslie. It was no masterpiece, he knew, but it was his favorite drawing because it represented the most important person in his life. His best friend. Jesse suddenly felt very nervous as Mary continued to examine the picture for several seconds. _Is she going to say something? Will she think I'm weird for drawing my friend?_

"Jess, is this Leslie?" Mary asked while holding the picture out and looking at him. Jesse felt himself blushing, but nodded, "Yeah.." he said quietly. Mary smiled, "It's very good. I bet she's proud you drew that," she said, standing up and handing him his book back. Jesse took the back and placed it on his lap, leaning back and looking up at his mom. "She.. doesn't know I drew it.. yet," he said, sounding somewhat guilty, as if he'd been doing something wrong. Mary smiled, "Show it to her, it's very good!"

Mary walked over to the window that faced the Burke's place, it was about 3 PM and the day was still sunny and bright, which was nice considering it was the middle of December. Mary stared out the window for a little while, not saying a word. Jesse continued to sit on his bed, and other than putting his book back, he didn't say anything as he waited for her to say something else.

"Jess.. Leslie is really important to you, isn't she?" Mary asked, somewhat quietly, but Jesse heard her perfectly. "Yeah, she is," he said with complete honesty. Mary continued to stare out the window for another minute before moving away and walking toward Jesse's bed again. This time however she did not sit down, but rather stood in front of him. Jesse looked up at her face as she began to speak again.

"Look, Jess, I don't want you to think that I'm okay with you sneaking off to Washington DC without anyone knowing where you are. But, I also don't want to keep you from seeing your friends. I know how much they mean to you... Just please promise me you won't do this again," Mary said, while looking very serious, almost pleading. Jesse sat in silence and registered what she was saying. He had not thought about how scary it must have been for her to hear that he was missing for hours. Jesse nodded and said, "I promise, Mom."

Mary smiled again. "Good, now go play with your friends," and she patted him on the arm.

Jesse bolted upright and, with a huge smile on his face, sprinted downstairs to put his shoes on and run to Leslie's house. Mary remained in Jesse's room for a few more minutes and watched her son run towards the Burke house through the window. When he was a good distance away, she sighed deeply and exited the room, closing the door behind her.

* * *

_Alright, so admittedly this was kind of filler. I didn't really know where to go with this chapter and that's part of the reason it took me almost 3 months to finish it. But I've got some ideas now, and I think it became decent by the end. Hope you enjoyed!  
_

* * *


	10. Sorry

_Trying to change my writing style a bit to space things out and hopefully make it a little easier to read the dialog. Is it better now?_

_Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed my story._

**Look Toward the Sky**

**Chapter 10 - Sorry**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

Jesse was running as fast as he possibly could down the dirt driveway towards the Burke house. He hadn't warmed up to do sprinting, and he soon started to feel a cramp in his leg, but he kept going, slowing his down only ever so slightly. Soon he reached the front door of the Burkes' house and stopped for a second to catch his breath before knocking. He could hear footsteps approaching a few seconds before the door opened, and he was greeted by Bill.

"Hey, Jess! How are ya'? I thought Leslie said you were grounded today. Get off the hook?" Bill asked him with a grin, and Jesse smiled and nodded back.

"Yeah, my mom went easy on me. Er.. is Leslie home?" Jesse asked, looking past Bill to see if she might be standing in the background somewhere.

"Can't wait to see her eh?" Bill said with a wink and a laugh. "Come on in! She's in the den with Lucas right now. I believe they are in the middle of an intense game of _Uno_."

Jesse stepped in the house and removed his shoes, leaving them outside on the front porch. He closed the door after he came in and started to follow Bill down the entrance hallway. He was glad to hear that Lucas was here as well, this would be a great time to find out what had happened the day before. On the way they passed the kitchen, where Judy was holding the wireless phone to her ear and hunched over the counter writing something down on a notepad. She noticed Jesse walking by, however, and waved and smiled at him. Jesse smiled and waved back at her as he continued walking down the hall.

"Judy is on the phone with our distributor. Our new book is set to release in a few weeks, we're very anxious," Bill began to say. Jesse's eyes widened, he had forgotten that Leslie had told him that her parents were writers.

"Wow, that's great. I didn't know you got books published!" Jesse said in sincere surprise. He honestly _didn't_ know that. Leslie had only said they were writers, she never spoke about it any further than that. Jesse had always assumed that they just did some writing on the side for fun, not as a full time career. It made sense though, they had a pretty nice house, a nice car, fancy clothes. They didn't exactly live an upper-class lifestyle but Jesse had figured they had some money.

"You mean Leslie didn't tell you? Well yes, Jess, we have made quite a few books for young adults. They actually do pretty well around the globe," Bill said.

Jesse nodded, "So are you like, a celebrity?" he asked sheepishly. He felt really stupid asking that question, but it sort of just came out before he thought too much about it. Luckily Bill wasn't bothered by the question, rather he was amused as he started chuckling.

"Ha ha, no I wouldn't quite say that, but I have done some book signings before. Leslie tells me you are a great drawer, maybe someday we can collaborate on something. You do the illustrations for a book." he said to Jesse, sounding light-hearted but somewhat serious at the same time. Jesse wasn't sure if he was serious or not, but the idea was enough to make his jaw drop.

"Th-that would be great! I would be honored.." he managed to say after several seconds of disbelief.

They reached the end of the hall that led to the Den, and Bill patted Jesse on the shoulder, giving him a smile as he left. Jesse walked in to see Leslie and Lucas sitting at the roundtable on the opposite side of the room. The table was a large and made out of a very dark brown oak. There were very large seats all around the table, all empty and apparently rarely used, except for the 2 being occupied. Both kids were in the corner, facing the entrance of the room and would have easily seen Jesse walking in had they been paying attention, but they were both apparently so focused on the game that they didn't notice.

They were laughing as they kept throwing cards down onto the pile. Lucas threw a card and gave Leslie a grin, and she lightly punched him on the arm. "Stop making me draw 2!" she said loudly and they both started laughing loudly. Their faces were red and Jesse, now standing at the other side of the table, could tell they had been having fun for a while. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of his 2 best friends laughing.

Suddenly Leslie looked up and gasped.

"Oh my gosh! Jess!" she exclaimed and immediately shot up and ran over to him and gave him a hug. Lucas had looked up and his expression changed from a look of surprise to a smile, he seemed just as surprised and happy to see Jesse as Leslie was.

"What happened? I thought you were gonna be grounded for years!" Leslie asked excitedly, dragging Jesse to another side of the room where some more casual chairs were. Lucas stood up and walked over to join them, but he still had a very noticeable limp to his step, and it took him a little longer. By the time he was seated, his ears were red from embarrassment of his friends watching him struggle to not fall down.

"I dunno, my mom was real mad yesterday, but today she came in and said she was just scared more than anything, and then she let me go," Jess said with a shrug. He didn't want to get too detailed about everything. In truth, he still felt really guilty for what he had done. At least Leslie wasn't mad at him.

**WHACK **

"Ow! What was that for?!" Jesse asked as he rubbed his arm that Leslie had just hit somewhat hard.

"That was for going to Washington without me!" Leslie said, sounding angry but she was trying very hard not to laugh and Jesse knew she was just playing around.

"I know... I'm really sorry for not telling you about it. I was being really stupid and selfish. I don't blame you if you're _really_ mad at me" he said with a sigh. Leslie just shrugged it off, however.

"It's OK Jess, I'm not mad, I promise. I'm just glad Lucas was around yesterday, I mean after what happened out by the river.." she said, drifting out at the end. Jesse's eyes widened as she said this.

"What? What happened at the river?" he asked, suddenly worried. _Is that how Lucas got hurt? What the heck happened?_

"Well, Jess, I don't really know how to say it...but.. the rope... the rope snapped in half yesterday," Leslie said, very worried about how Jesse was going to react. Unfortunately he reacted almost exactly the way she worried he would.

"What?! How? Wait.. Really? It's just snapped in half now? That's how Lucas got hurt?" Jesse asked loudly in rapid-fire succession. At the mention of his name Lucas looked down embarrassed. He had been worried that Jesse would start blaming him Although Lucas didn't know exactly what the rope signified for Jesse and Leslie, he knew it was important to them, and he had felt immensely guilty ever since the accident happened. It had been him holding it when it snapped off. Leslie assured him countless times that he shouldn't feel responsible, and that they should just be glad that he wasn't hurt more seriously.

Jesse put his head in his hands and stared between his feet at the carpet. He was slowly running his fingers through his hair and he looked really upset and stressed out. Without even thinking, Jesse just said the first thing that came to mind. "How are we going to Terabithia now?" he asked, looking up at Leslie. His voice was quiet, almost pitiful, and Leslie felt very sad for him. She knew how important Terabithia was to him. To both of them. Now that their entrance way was broken, she had worried that he would be upset.

But what surprised her was that Jesse had openly referred to Terabithia for the first time in Lucas' presence. He had made great strides to keep it under wraps for the last month around him, but at that moment he said it with no hesitation.

"Don't worry, Jess. We'll find another way to go," Leslie said softly and stood up, beginning to walk over to Jesse to comfort him. But suddenly he bolted up and ran out of the room, before Leslie could reach his chair. Leslie sighed heavily and looked over at Lucas. He was still sitting down and looked horribly confused, and still had that look of guilt he had been carrying since the rope broke. Leslie had no doubt he was trying to figure out what _Terabithia_ is and why Jesse was so upset.

"_Dang it..." _Leslie muttered under her breath and ran out of the room to follow Jesse.

* * *

Leslie ran down the hallway and grabbed her shoes on the way out the front door. She was not far behind Jesse but she knew it would be tough to catch up to him as he sprinted away from the house, but at least she knew exactly where he was going: the river. Leslie began running after Jesse, calling his name every few seconds, trying to get him to slow down, but he was unrelenting in his sprint.

Soon Leslie reached the opening in the forest that held the river bank and the now-severed rope. Leslie walked up to find Jesse's back to her as he sat on the old fallen tree stump facing the river. He seemed to be shaking slightly, and sure enough as Leslie rounded him and took a seat next to him, he had some tears in his eyes. Before Leslie said anything Jesse started speaking.

"How can this.. How can this be? I can't imagine not ever going back to Terabithia, Les." Jesse said with a shaky voice, he didn't look at her as he said this, but rather continued staring at the rippling waves of the river. The sound of the water clashing against the rocks and the slight breeze gave a peaceful sensation to the otherwise tense and dreadful scene.

"Jess... Just because the rope is gone doesn't mean we have to give up on Terabithia.." she said, trying to comfort him but not sure if it would work.

"But the rope is how we enter the kingdom," he retorted, and Leslie started wondering if she had made a mistake by declaring the old rope as the entry way into their kingdom. She tried to quickly think of a solution, but couldn't so they sat in silence for several minutes. The quietness was interrupted only by the sounds of some birds chirping and the continuous sound of the river flowing. Leslie thought for a second that it was a really nice moment, until she remembered that her best friend was in tears a foot away from her on that log.

After what must have been about 10 minutes they heard the sound of a twig snapping behind them. Jesse and Leslie turned around and were surprised to see Lucas walking toward them. Well, limping toward them anyhow. Nobody said anything as he approached. When Lucas reached them a few seconds later, he stopped and looked at Jesse.

"Jess, I'm... I'm really sorry about the rope. I was just going to swing on it and then suddenly it s-snapped.. " he said, looking extremely nervous. Leslie and Lucas both expected him to get more upset or even angry, but surprisingly Jesse just looked up and nodded.

"You don't have to apologize Lucas, I know it's not your fault. It's just...we..used to play over there a lot," Jesse said as he made a gesture with his head to the other side of the river, "It just stinks that we can't get over there anymore." Lucas looked across the river and then up at the severed piece of rope still hanging from the tree.

"Well, what about that?" Lucas asked, pointing at something down the river. Jesse and Leslie both looked up to see what he was pointing at, and they noticed that a huge tree had fallen over, presumably in the storm a few days beforehand, and it spanned across the river.

"What, that tree?" Leslie asked, and Lucas nodded.

"Yeah, it looks like you could use it as a bridge or something," he said with a shrug.

As he said this Jesse was staring at the log and suddenly started imaging, _what if we really did have a bridge? The bridge to Terabithia..._ He started thinking if he could find any lumber to use to make an actual, realistic looking bridge. Suddenly he remembered that the Burkes' had a bunch of extra lumber in their front yard that was left over from the remodeling they had done on the house before moving in.

"Hey Leslie, you think your parents would let us borrow that lumber in your yard?" Jesse asked, turning to face her. Leslie got a big smile on her face when he asked, and he knew that they had been thinking the exact same thing.

_Definitely safer than an old piece of rope._

* * *

_Standard fare excuses time! :) I wrote this between 12:30 AM and 3:00 AM, so if there's any weird spelling, grammatical, or continuity errors, leave me a note and I'll try to clean it up. But thank you for checking out my story, really. I appreciate every single review I get. _

_Obviously this chapter ends up mirroring and slightly altering an important part of the real story. I hope this will be interesting, not unoriginal and stale. As you may have guessed, Lucas might be visiting Terabithia soon. I'm not sure how much I will incorporate Terabithia into the story. On one hand, I think it can work quite well and it's very imaginative, but on the other hand I have some ideas that will take place in the real world, and I may end up sticking with those instead. What do you think?_


	11. Hair

_I know, I am super indecisive and have the worst attention span ever. Sorry about the billionth name change. This really will be the last one._

_It's been a rough couple of weeks for me, and reading the excellent fanfics on this site has been one of the few things that has made me feel better. Thank you to everyone here for writing truly excellent stories, and thank you to the few who continue to review mine._

**Look Toward the Sky  
Chapter 11 - Hair**

_Disclaimer: Bridge to Terabithia is not mine, it belongs to Katherine Paterson._

Before he knew it, Jesse was waking up on Monday morning for the beginning of his last week of school before Winter Break. The rest of the previous day had gone by rather quickly once he had begun working out the details for the bridge he would build that would take him to Terabithia.

He had been extremely upset when he saw the broken rope hanging over the creek. For the past few months he and Leslie had used it almost every day to cross the river into their kingdom, and it was there that he was truly happy. Upon seeing the broken rope, he had a flash of panic. What was he supposed to do without Terabithia? Or without his Queen Leslie? If they couldn't be in Terabithia, would Leslie still want to be his friend?

Jesse realized that his thoughts were irrational later on that day. Of course Leslie would still be his friend. Terabithia was something they both loved and took part in, it wasn't the thing that kept their friendship together.

It had been Lucas who suggested that they could build a bridge out of the fallen tree that spanned across the river. It had no doubt fallen down during one of the many storms they had been having the last few weeks, but it was just out of the way enough for them not to notice it when they were taking hold of the rope to swing across. Jesse had been thankful that Lucas was there to come up with the suggestion, but he was still a little apprehensive about explaining why it was so important to him to be able to get across the river. All he had told Lucas was that they used to play in the woods on the other side of the river a lot. It wasn't a lie necessarily, everything he said was true, but he still felt somewhat guilty for omitting the details of exactly what they did over there.

Regardless of his lack of knowledge about Terabithia, Lucas had offered to help Jesse and Leslie build the bridge, so they all decided they would start working on it after school the next day, and Jesse would draw up some tentative blueprints in the meantime. Jesse had gone home after the discussion and began working on some drawings of the bridge, and while they were nowhere near as technical as a true carpenter's blueprints, they were descriptive and imaginative enough to give a good impression of what it could look like. After drawing the bridge at a few different angles on a couple of sheets, Jesse couldn't help but begin to draw the forest beyond it, and without thinking also began drawing some of Terabithia's creatures and, of course, the grand castle in the distant background. Before he knew it, he had made another drawing of Terabithia itself. In fact, it was probably his best one yet.

On the bus to school the next morning, all the kids were taking guesses on how much, or how little, work they would have to do in the last week before their Winter vacation. For the most part, the 3 kids weren't worried about most of their teachers giving them much, if any, homework this week. Except of course for Mrs. Myers. They all agreed that she was most likely to give them something to do. Upon entering her class 20 minutes later, their fears were confirmed by the message written on the whiteboard.

**Creative Essay due Thursday****  
One page minimum  
Select essays will be presented by their authors on Friday**

"We aren't going to be able to relax until the moment our vacation begins, will we?" Jesse asked with a sigh as he took his seat after putting his backpack on the floor. Leslie smirked at him, amused by Jesse's disdain for anything that involved writing.

"It's still school, Jess. Besides, it's only one page, you can do that in an hour," Leslie said as she took her seat a few rows away.

"It says select essays will be presented, I hope I don't have to read mine," Lucas muttered quietly.

"Well, just write a really bad one, then she won't make you read it out loud!" Jesse replied with a grin that made Lucas laugh. Leslie cracked a smile while shaking her head. _Lazy boys..._

The bell rang and Mrs. Myers walked in. "Good morning, class," she said, obviously trying to sound friendly but failing, as usual. A couple of kids responded back to her quietly, but for the most part it remained quiet. All the kids obviously didn't want to be there, and the looming assignment written on the whiteboard was only bringing their mood down even more. It didn't take long for Mrs. Myers to address the essay.

"As I'm sure you all noticed, there is an essay due on Thursday," Mrs. Myers began and was interrupted by the sound of the majority of the class groaning, Jesse and Lucas included. "This will be a one page paper, and I want you to write about something you_ dream_ of. It doesn't have to be about a dream you have at night. It can be about your hopes for the future, or even things you daydream about in class.." She let the last words hang for a second and she looked directly at Jesse for a split second. Leslie noticed the glance and smiled to herself, but Jesse, nor apparently anyone else, didn't catch it.

"I will review the essays on Thursday evening and, on Friday, will select a few of you who have done a good job to read yours out loud," she continued. This incited even more groans from the class. "Spelling and grammar _will_ count," she continued, but Jesse lost interest at this point and opened up his sketchbook. He flipped through his older drawings and stopped on his latest drawing of Terabithia. He began adding more creatures and details to the drawing as Mrs. Myers continued to ramble on.

* * *

The rest of the day, however, proved to be more relaxing and easy as the kids had expected and hoped for. No other teachers assigned them any last minute projects or homework. Most teachers were quite ready to take a vacation and instead of teaching opted to show movies to their classes.

After school the kids took their seats on the bus, with Jesse and Leslie sitting next to each other and Lucas sitting directly in front of them. They were all very talkative, and were talking about their plans for the bridge. Jesse brought his sketchbook out and showed Leslie the picture he had been working on for the past 2 days. Leslie's jaw dropped at seeing it. She saw the bridge in the foreground, but what amazed her was all the details in the background. There were countless trees and flowers, and even a giant castle in the background. On the edge of the forest facing the bridge, she spotted at least a dozen different creatures, some which she could identify as Terabithian creatures that he had drawn or painted before, but some of them were brand new, and they all looked as amazing as the next.

"Wow, Jess, this is amazing," she said quietly, and Jesse was surprised at her reaction. He had thought that it was pretty good, but she looked astounded by the drawing. Jesse held the drawing and Leslie tapped Lucas on the shoulder. "Hey Lucas, check this drawing out that Jess did, it's pretty incredible isn't it?" she said to him.

Lucas turned around in his seat and glanced over at the sketchbook, initially taking a quick look, but upon seeing how detailed the drawing was, his eyes widened and he fully turned around in his seat and rested on his knees while hanging over the seat staring at the drawing. "Wow, that's..amazing. You are really good Jess..." he said, sounding just as amazed as Leslie was. Jesse smiled and thanked him. Leslie was still looking at the drawing in Jesse's lap, and she looked up at Lucas who still had his head down, looking at the picture, and she noticed something weird.

"Hey Lucas, I didn't know you dyed your hair blonde," Leslie said, sounding very curious and confused. Lucas and Jesse both looked at her surprised. "Leslie, what--" Jesse began but he was cut off by Lucas' answer. "H-how could you tell?" he asked quietly, he actually looked nervous which confused Leslie even more.

"I can see your dark hair coming in underneath..." she said back, and his eyes went wide and he quickly turned around in his chair, leaning forward and running his hands through his hair. Jesse and Leslie looked at each other, both highly confused and concerned about his reaction. They both leaned forward to continue talking to him, trying to keep their voices lowered.

"Lucas, what is it? So you dye your hair, big deal, people do it all the time," Leslie began, but Lucas continued facing forward, not saying anything.

"Are you worried people are gonna call you a girl for doing it, or something?" Jesse asked with a slight grin, but Leslie gave him a dirty look which clearly read '_Don't say that'_, but Lucas shook his head no. "Well.. what is it then?" Leslie asked him. A few seconds later Lucas turned around and looked at both of them. He still looked rather shaken up and nervous, and he simply said, "I'll tell you guys, but not here, OK?" They both nodded at him and sat back in their seat. Lucas remained facing away from them for the last 5 minutes of the ride before they reached their stop and proceeded to get off the bus.

After stepping off the bus, May Belle quickly waved to them and took off running towards the Aarons house. Jesse remembered that there was a TV show on today that she had wanted to watch, but he was quietly grateful that she had left quickly, as he was waiting for Lucas to explain what was bothering him. The bus departed from the stop with the loud sound of the brakes releasing and the kids started walking slowly toward Leslie's house, nobody saying anything. After about 20 seconds Lucas broke the silence and stopped walking.

"OK, well.. I..y-you guys have to promise me not to tell anyone about this," he began, and Jesse and Leslie immediately stopped walking when they noticed he had begun speaking. Lucas looked at both of them for a confirmation that they had heard what he said, and when they silently nodded back he continued. They had never seen him look as serious as he did at that moment. "I never told anyone about this but there's a reason why me and my Mom moved to Lark Creek. W-we were... we were trying to get away from my..my dad," he stammered quite a bit while saying it and he was staring at the ground, obviously feeling ashamed.

Jesse and Leslie looked at each other again in surprise, not sure what to say but Leslie took a guess, "Um... was your dad mean to you and your mom.. or something?" she asked softly, and after a few seconds Lucas nodded, still staring at the ground.

"Yeah," he finally said, "and he h-hit me sometimes too if he got mad enough..And he hit my mom a lot..." he said, his voice was getting really shaky as he said it.

Jesse couldn't help but raise his voice a little, "Didn't you call the cops or anything?!" he asked in a tone that was a little harsher than he intended. Lucas nodded.

"We did, they couldn't prove he did anything.. My dad is a really good liar," he said.

Jesse and Leslie were both stunned, "Oh my gosh.. Lucas... I'm so, so sorry, we had no idea," she said and she walked forward to give Lucas a hug. Jesse stood back and watched her hugging him, and he almost was going to do the same but he didn't quite feel comfortable hugging him. Instead he ran his hand through his hair and sighed, before glancing at his own house. He had always had a miserable home life with his own father, with all the yelling, but his Dad had never hit him, and the more Jesse thought of it, the more grateful to his own father he was, and more hatred for Lucas' father kept building up.

Jesse looked back at his friends and they were now sitting down on the spot, in the middle of the dirt road. Lucas had his legs curled up and his arms wrapped around them, and Leslie sat next to him, saying nothing but leaning against his right shoulder. Jesse walked over and sat across from them.

"My mom said not to tell anybody about this, but I had to tell someone, it was driving me crazy... and.. you guys are the only people I trust," Lucas said while staring at his shoes. They both nodded and silently felt thankful that he could trust them. "So my mom was making me dye my hair blonde to try and... I dunno, disguise myself I guess, in case my Dad found us and went looking for me. But I told her 2 days ago that I didn't want to do it anymore because it takes a long time and it burns my head sometimes, and she started crying and yelling at me.. She got pretty mad," he continued.

"Well... I think your mom just wants you to be safe, but I don't think she's really mad at you.. did she say you had to keep doing it?" Leslie asked him. Lucas shook his head, "No, I don't have to keep doing it but... I.. I worry that he will come find us now... I'd rather die then go back to live with him..." he said quietly but sounding frighteningly serious. "Don't worry, you won't ever have to live with your Dad again," Jesse assured him, and Leslie put a hand on his shoulder to assure him. Lucas smiled slightly and after a few seconds thanked them.

Eventually they all got up and dusted themselves off. "Lucas, you still interested in helping us with the bridge?" Jesse asked, not really sure what to expect for an answer, but he was glad when Lucas nodded. "Yeah, sure, I'd love to." he said with a smile. Jesse and Leslie figured he would want to do anything to get his mind off of everything else.

* * *

A few minutes later the kids were entering Leslie's house. Jesse and Lucas removed their shoes on the porch and they stepped inside. The heater was on inside the house and all 3 of them sighed with relief as the warm air engulfed them. They hadn't realized how cold it was outside, and although it wasn't quite cold enough to snow, it was definitely Virginian winter weather.

They walked down the hallway into the kitchen where they found Judy Burke cooking some food. "Hey kids!" she exclaimed as they walked in. Leslie gave her mom a kiss and Jesse replied with a '_Hello Mrs. Burke'_, but Lucas simply smiled and waved. Judy looked at Lucas and noticed that he was wearing a T-shirt despite the cold weather outside. "Lucas! You must be frozen, did you forget your jacket on a day like this?" she asked, not exactly reprimanding him but still concerned. Lucas looked down at his shirt as if he hadn't been aware of what he was wearing. "Oh, um.. I just don't get cold easily I guess," he said with a shrug.

Judy smiled at his response. "Well, regardless, it's nice and warm in here so you kids stay a while and hide out from the winter here," Judy was living up to her name of "World's Best Hostess" that Leslie had given her when talking to her friends.

"Sorry Mom, can't stay. We're gonna be building something in the woods with the extra lumber out front. Dad said it was OK," Leslie replied while she opened the cupboard door and grabbed 3 water bottles. She handed one to Jesse and Lucas and opened hers up and took a sip.

"Well, OK kids, but be careful out there, and you can borrow one of Leslie's jackets if you want, Lucas," she offered, but Lucas declined the offer.

"Thanks Mrs. Burke, but I'll be okay," he said. Jesse smiled to himself imagining Lucas wearing one of Leslie's multi-colored outfits, or better yet, if she happened to actually own a "girly" one.

As the three kids exited the house and made their way over to the stack of lumber on the side of the house, Jesse and Lucas couldn't help but comment on how nice Leslie's mom was. Leslie just shrugged it off, obviously familiar with the behavior.

"Yeah, she always gets like this when she finishes a book. She'll be SuperMom for a few weeks and then when she starts on her next book, I'll barely see her anymore," she explained. Jesse frowned a bit at hearing this, but said nothing of it.

The kids approached the stack of lumber and found about thirty pieces of wood still remaining. They were all different sizes, ranging anywhere from 3 to 20 feet. They all stood there and examined the pile, all trying to figure out the best way to transport it the several minute walk to the woods.

"We should try to make as few trips as possible," Jesse reasoned, to which his friends nodded.

"We could use my old wagon for the small pieces and then carry the large ones ourselves," Leslie suggested and ran to go get her wagon from the shed nearby. She returned a few seconds later with the old Radio Flyer trailing behind her. They all started loading the smallest pieces of wood onto the wagon. The 3' long pieces easily sat inside but the several longer ones all hung over the edge. They figured they'd just have to go slow on hills. With the wagon filled up with about half of the pieces, Jesse and Lucas both grabbed some pieces that were about 10' to 12' long, and they all began to make their way towards the woods where the fallen log awaited them.

They didn't speak much during the trips back and forth, and it took about 6 trips to get every last piece transported out. There was an awkward silence looming over all 3 friends from their earlier conversation. Jesse and Leslie felt like they wanted to say so much more to Lucas, but they weren't sure he wanted to hear it, or anything for that matter. Finally after about half the lumber was transported they were able to start talking about other things and laugh again, mostly about the upcoming break and complaining about the essay for Mrs. Myers.

"What do you guys think you will write your essays about?" Leslie asked on the way back from their third trip.

"What is the topic again?" Jesse asked, and Leslie shook her head as she knew he hadn't been paying attention in class like usual, and she smirked a bit remembering back to Mrs. Myer's comment about day dreaming in class that was indirectly describing him.

"It's about dreams. What is your dream"? She asked him. Jesse thought about his answer for about 5 seconds until he answered.

"My dream is to not have to do this paper," he said with a grin, and Lucas couldn't help but laugh out loud at the painfully sarcastic answer.

"I guess I should have seen that one coming!" Leslie said while rolling her eyes, but she joined in on the laughter afterwards.

* * *

_Well I took a shot at this story arc, hopefully I did alright with it._

_I didn't want to drop names at the top of the page, but I want to thank G-Matt, abeatticus, molly, and everyone else who has reviewed my story. It's tough to 'compete' with the amazing work on this site, so thank you for taking the time to read mine, and hopefully it's coming along alright._

_Seriously, I'm not changing my name again, by the way._


End file.
